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Only a Profession 




odTn.U'VLdt JJo. Modis- 



Only a Profession 

And Other Sermons 



By 

EDMUND M. MILLS, D. D. 

DF TUB CENTRAL NEW YORK CONFBR1 




CINCINNATI: JENNINGS AND GRAHAM 
NEW YORK: EATON AND MAINS 



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COPYRIGHT, 19c 

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CONTENTS. 






J. Only a Profession, - 9 

II. I low to Know, - - - - - 23 

III. The All-Conquering Christ, - - 40 

IV. The Nation's Memorial, - - 60 
V. As Hi; Thinketh in His Heart, - 79 

VI. What Makes a Nation Great? - - 99 

V 1 1 . I [OUS Deterioration, - 116 

VI 11. A Withered Hand, - - - 133 



I 

ONLY A PROFESSION. 

"And when he came to it lie found nothing bid 
leaves." — Mark xi, 13. 

Tin-: Master in His teaching employed the ma- 
terial and visible to illustrate the spiritual and un- 
seen. He laid hold of the common things of every- 
day life and sent them forth His angels of instruc- 
tion. The tiny blade of grass, the flower of the field, 
the bird of the sky, were made to tell of the love 
and care of th Heavenly Father. Though 

" None of the ransomed ever knew 
How deep were the waters crossed, 
Xor how dark was the night that the Lord 
passed through 
Ere He found his sheep that was lost;" 

yet when He sought to make men know His love for 
a race that all like sheep had gone astray, He rep- 
resented Himself as the Good Shepherd who laid 
down His life for His sheep. 

He made the i veil as tlie ears of man aid 

9 



io Only a Profession. 

Him in imparting the truth. One day, standing in 
a boat anchored near the shore, He said to the at- 
tentive multitude who stood on the shelving bank, 
"Behold, a sower went forth to sow/ 1 and pointed 
at the same time to a husbandman who was scatter- 
ing seeds over the fields near at hand. What Tie 

id with His lips they saw taking place. Under 
such circumstances how impressive His warning, 
"Take heed how ye hear." Another day, seated with 
His disciples after they had seen the keeper- of the 
vin< trimming the vines and gathering the 

branches cut off into heaps and burning them, lie 

id: "I am the true Vine, and My Father is the 
Husbandman. Eveiy branch in Me that beareth 

not fruit He taketh away; and every branch that 
beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth 
more fruit NOW ye are clean through the word 
which I have Spoken unto you. Abide in Me, and 
I in you. As the branch can not bear fruit of itself, 
except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except 
ye abide in Me. I am the Vine, ye are the branch 

he that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bring- 
eth forth much fruit; for without Me ye can do 
nothing. If a man abide not in Me he is cast forth 

a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, 
and cast them into the tire, and they are burned. ,, 



( Ki.\ \ Proi kssion, n 

When He would teach the difference betw 
knowing and doing. He pointed to a building in 
ruins, whose foundations had been laid in the sand 

and carried away by a spring torrent, and said: 
"Therefore whosoever heareth these savings of Mine 

and doeth them, 1 will liken him unto a wise man 
who built his house upon a rock; and the rain de- 
scended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, 
and beat upon that house ; and it fell not ; for it 
was founded upon a rock. And every one that 
heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth them not, 
shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his 
house on the sand ; and the rain descended, and the 
floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that 
house ; and it fell ; and great was the fall of it." 

" His sermons were the helpful talk 
That shorter made the mountain walk ; 
His wayside texts the flowers and birds, 
Where mingled with his gracious words 
The rustle of the tamarisk tree, 
And ripple wash of Galilee." 

A barren fig-tree was the text from which He 
preached a sermon on the doom of those who are 
only nominal Christians. The fruit precedes the 

leaves on the fig-tree, so luxuriant foliage was not so 
much a promise of fruit as a profession of its pres- 
ence. The leaves in our text represent a profession 



12 Oxr.v a Profession. 

of religion. Fruit represents the spirit life — heart 
holiness and its results. Do not understand me as 
teaching that a pr I of faith in Christ is not 

important. It is the duty of every one to coni\ 
Christ, by word as well as act. Doth the confession 
of the lip and the life are nee "For with the 

heart man believeth unto righte . and with 

the mouth confession is made unto salvation." 

There are not man>- secret Christians. When there 

for Christ in the heart, that love will find 
ex; . "for OUt of the abundance of the heart 

tlie mouth speaketh." If 1 warn ainst being 

linal Christians — trusting in a mere profession 

faith in Christ— 1 must warn linst think- 

that it mal lifference whether you ooni 

Christ 6r not, for lie ha- -aid, "Wl. - there- 

e shall i .Me 1>< [( ire men, him will 1 al 

coi ther which is in heaven. But 

wh shall deny M, men, him will I 

also deny before My Father which is in heaven." 

Well has Guthrie Baid: "While in some cases there 

i witlmnt its reality, th< 
is in no the realifr ligion without its pro- 

fd There may be leaves and blOi also 

on a tree which bears no fruit, but without lea \ 
and blossoms there can be no fruit. The tree which 



( inu \ Proi 13 

in high midsummer, whet) skies are warm, and birds 
are singing, and Sowers arc blooming, and woods 

arc green, stands there a skeleton form, with its 
naked branches, lias no life in it. It must be a cum- 
in rer of the ground." Both the man who refu 

to confess Christ with his mouth, and the one who 
thinks that a mere profession of faith in Him is 
sufficient, will come short of eternal life. I never 
dare to make a profession of religion for a dead man, 
when he never made such a profession for himself 
while he lived. The most common delusion of our 
times is, that one can evade paying a large part of 
the price of being Christ's disciple and yet be saved. 
The nominal Christian and the moralist alike need 
to be reminded that it is not enough to refrain from 
positive sins. The ax will be laid at the root of the 
tree that bears evil fruit, and the tree that bears 
nothing but leaves will also perish. The idle servant 
in the Scripture is condemned as certainly as the 
dishonest servant. He who is silent when he should 
speak at the crisis of a holy cause may be hardly 
less guilty than the blasphemer. Meroz was cursed 
because it did nothing. The man who bears no good 
fruit can not be a Christian. Fruit-bearing is the 
mark of a true Christian. Fruitlessness is the mark 
of a false one. David, describing the good man, 



14 Only a Profession. 

affirms ''that he shall be like a tree planted by the 
rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his 
season," and our Lord says, "He that abideth in 
Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much 
fruit; so shall ye be My disciples." Xo one need 
have nothing but leaves to offer to the Heavenly 
Gardener when He comes seeking fruit. God has 
made it possible for every one to lead a holy, useful 
life. This is bearing good fruit. Our holiness and 
Usefulness do not depend on our occupying promi- 
nent positions or • ing extraordinary talents, 

but on the consecration of our place and powers to 

the glory of God No One is without opportunity to 
work. The world's labor markets are often over 
Supplied. Men eager to \v< irk stand idle in the market 
place- lamenting, "No man hath hired us/ 1 but in 
Christ's field there is always plenty to ^^- Our 

Lord's description of the world nearly two thousand 

years ago represents it to-day, "The harvest truly is 

great, the laborers are few." The opportunity to do 
good and get good is found everywhere. \o one 
here is denied a chance for attainment and achieve- 
ment. Xo day passes that does not open two doors 

to us, the door to self-improvement and the door to 

help others. Knowledge is to be sought and treas- 
ured. Evil ambitions are to be mastered. The farm, 



i.v A Proi 15 

the forge, the store, the market-place, and every 
field o\ honest toil are schools where we can both 

learn and teach. With a reward promised, even to 
the cup of cold water given in Christ's name, what 
a world of beneficent activity opens to usl The 
poor are to he fed and clothed, the ignorant enlight- 
ened, and the discouraged encouraged. If you have 
any good to offer, you will find a million hearts 
around that need it. 

Great talents are not necessary to render one use- 
ful in serving his day and generation. He has been 
a careless reader of history wdio has not been im- 
sed with the fact that most of the world's work 
is done and burdens carried by those who are not 
"talented." 

Many of the most useful ministers I have ever 
known have not been what is called "gifted." A 
wise layman, prominent in the councils of our 
Church, said to me recently : "We have had for sev- 
eral years as our pastor one of the most brilliant 
orators in Methodism ; but we must have for our 
next pastor a plodder who will get our children con- 
verted." He continued: "I am changing my esti- 
mates of preachers. The gifts that make a minister 
most admired are not those that make him most use- 
ful. The men who have done the most for our 



16 Only a Profession. 

Church have not been 'great' men. Every denomi- 
nation should have some 'star pulpiteers,' but it can 
not prosper or survive if it has many of them !" As 
I review a quarter of a century spent in the pastor- 
ate, I am compelled to admit that the most useful 
laymen I have ever known have not been the wealth- 
iest or "brainiest." And I have known not a few of 
both these classes who have been true disciples and 
:' our Lord. Tr -ary 

for usefulness are the common one<. Albert Barnes 

has remarked: "One Niagara is enough for the con- 
tinent or the world, while the same world requires 
and tens of th« of silver fountains 

and gently flowing rivulets, that water every farm 

and meadow and garden, and that shall flow on every 
lit with their gentle, quid beauty. Jt is not by 
Ifl like those of the martyrs that good is to 
be done; it IS by the daily and quiet virtues of life, 
the Christian temper, th( ' qualities of rela- 

tives and friends, that it is to be done/ 1 

Not only does the Bible teach and our experi- 
ence prove that we have daily, hourly opportunities 

for doing and ] I, but al-<> that if we strive 

4l to bear the image of the heavenly," "become par- 
takers of the divine nature/ 1 "have the mind that 

was in Christ/ 1 and M go about doing good," God 



.<,Y a Profession, 17 

will, by giving us the H0I3 Spirit, crown our efforts 
with success. ( hir most careful plannings, our most 
diligent labors, will be no more than heaping up a 
pile of sand that the nexl wind will scatter if the 
"Holy Ghost does not put His 'Amen' upon them." 
It is not by human might or power thai we arc to 
succeed, but by God's Spirit, He is offered freely 
to all who sincerely desire to be obedient to the will 
and devoted to the person of Jesus Christ. Our 
Lord said to I lis followers: "If a son shall ask 
bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him 
a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give 
him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he 
offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know 
how to give good gifts unto your children, how much 
more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy 
Spirit to them that ask Him?" 

I heard a scoffer once say mockingly, "It does 
not seem to take much of a man to be a Christian," 
referring to one who was so dull that he was but 
one remove from idiocy, and yet was a sincere, con- 

tit Christian. I thank God that unbeliever's 

taunt is true. 1 have no doubt that despised man, 

sttipid almost to the verge of imbecility, has found 

his way to paradise. But it takes all there is of the 

gifted man to be a Christian. "To whom much 

2 



iS Only a Proi*ESSI< »n. 

is given, of him shall much be required." Ami 
many a man of whom the world expects much and 
Christ demands much, fails because he thinks his 
talents are so great and many that in his case conse- 
crating them all to the sen *od is unnecessary. 
He who is content to do less than his very best for 
his Lord, will not he a fruit-bearing Christian. It 

is a woman who had only two mites — a farthing — 

who won Chri .imcndatr in tig. 

And a man with only one talent may take the prize 
f<>r faithful::- 5S« It* we dream for a moment that a 

half-hearted service will save us from the doom ^\ 
the barren fig-tree, St. Peter's words should unde- 

"And I \ ing all diligei 

add t<> ih. virtue; and to virtue, knowledj 

and t<> knowledg€j temperance; and to temperance, 

patience; and t<> patience, godliness; and to godli- 

5, brotherly kindness; and t<> brotherly kindrn 
charity. For if these things be in you and abound, 

they v.. I that ye shall neither be barren, nor 

unfruitful in the know! i >ur Lord Jesus Christ. 

But he that lacketh these things, is blind and can 
not see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was 
purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, 
brethren, give diligence to make your calling and 
election sure; for if ye do these things ye shall never 
fall." 



.!.y a Profess] [9 

Mow, notice that he who is a Christian in name 
only is in great danger of self-deception. Man}- a 
man makes the fact that he is a member of the 
Church of Christ an armor against the attacl 

the gospel minister. It is easy for men to think that 
because they are Church members they must he 

Christians. The man outside of the Church has 
temptations to which he is exposed. He may be self- 
righteous, but he does not depend on Church mem- 
bership to save him. Again, the man who has the 

form of godliness, but is not possessed of the fruits 
of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentle- 

. goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance, 
comes to disbelieve in Christ's power to save His 
people from their sins, as the average worlding does 
not. He measures the possibilities of grace by his 
own experience. How can he believe that Christ's 
yoke is easy and His burden is light, when he finds 
the forms and ordinances of Christianity so grievous 
to him? What meaning do Christ's words, "Peace 
I leave with you, My peace I give unto you; not as 
the world giveth, give I unto you," have for the man 

se soul is tossed by unrest, and yet regards him- 
self a Christian ? 

Again, to offer to (led worship in which there 
is no love, and to give Him the service of the lip 



20 Only a Profession. 

only, is to outdo in wickedness those who treat with 
neglect His claims and provoke Him to say, "Why 
call ye Me Lord, and do not the things I say unto 
you?" 

Finally, he who is not a sincere Christian can do 
far more harm in the Church than out of it. While 
Satan will try to keep a man out of the Church who 
is really converted, and a man out of the ministry 

who IS really called of God to this work, on the other 
hand he would like to fill the Church with unsaved 
men and women, and the pulpit with those who are 

strati and I [is g -pel. 

e having the form lliness, but denying 

or devoid of the ] thereof, has an influence to 

mislead that the non-pi has not You remem- 

ber the pr< >phet wl lj before Jero 

boam when he was offering es on an altar 

he had set up, not to promote th< of true re- 

ion, but to make secure his own kingdom* 

Though it was like putting his hand on a fierce, 

raging lion, the prophet rebuked the king. He 
braved the disappointment and rage of Jeroboam, 

and when the king, humbled and repentant, besought 
the proph< his pal ! r food and r 

and a reward, declined, saying: "If thou wilt give 
me half thine house, I will not go in with thee. 



U\ \ PRO! 2 i 

neither will I eat bread or drink water in this place; 
> it was charged me by the word of the Lord, 

saying, Kat no bread and drink no water, nor turn 
again by the same way that thou earnest/ 1 But the 
man of God, who had not been swerved a hair's- 
breadth by the threats or bribes of the king, fell a 
victim to the man who said unto him, "I am a 
prophet also as thou art." Listening to him he was 
led to disobey the word of the Lord and perished. 
A worldling in heart, but wearing the livery of 
heaven, is most influential in leading "others to pass 
to the utmost bounds of what is lawful." 

And the "next step,'' according to Tillotson, "will 
be into that which is unlawful." Formalists in the 
Church make more doubters and skeptics than do 
all infidels outside. Where the truth even is held in 
unrighteousness, there unbelief abounds; but where 
the gospel is faithfuly preached and practiced, infi- 
delity can not ever be widespread. 

With what difficulty are the children of nominal 
Christians led to Christ ! They see no charms in 
Christianity. Their fears are hilled to sleep by the 
indifference of their parents. Their most dangerous 
spiritual enemies are they of their own household. 
We have seen that fruitless Christians are not only 

useless, but harmful. Does not the small increase 



22 Only a Profession, 

of the Church furnish ground for fear that many of 
its members are not living in vital union with Jesus 
Christ? Xo Church statistics justify boasting, but 
they do justify heart searching* sometimes. A 
Church that year after year reports either a decrease 
in membership, or a very small increase at Ik 
surd}- is not living up to its privileges. That God 
who did n<>t spare the Jewish Church will not spare 
us if we are unfruitful. Christ comes seeking fruit. 
The unfruitful nation <>r Church or institution will 

IK- wither with I lis Word or cut down with the 
sharp ax of His judgments. "Every tree that bring- 
eth forth n< 3 hewn down and cast into 

the fnv." "Every branch in me that beareth net 

fruit He taketh away." "If a man abide not in Me, 

la- : I branch, and is withered, and men 

ther them, a: them into the fire, and they are 

burned/ 1 ( ) barren tree! not always wilt thou not 

be spared to cumber thy Lor aid. Perhaps 

the Heavenly Gardei saying, "Let it 

alone this year, and if it bear fruit, well; and if not, 
then after that cut it down." 



II. 

HOW TO KNOW, 

"If any man will do His will, lie shall mow of the 
Joctr'nic, whether it be of God, or whether I 
speak of myself" — John vit, 17. 

Max in making' his pilgrimage through life is 
journeying over a road that he never traveled before, 
and one over which he will never pass again. Every 
day brings him to situations that he is unfamiliar 
with, to decisions far-reaching in their influence and 
results. How to guard against irreparable and fatal 
mistakes and errors is no unimportant matter to him. 
-:1111c that he desires to do right. Cut what is 
right? is a question that confronts him. Here is a 
Book that claims to be the Word of the High and 
Holy I hie that inhabiteth eternity, the revelation of 
the Creator of all tilings to man. It affirms that 
God the Father so loved the world that lie gave His 
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him 
should not perish, but have everlasting life. It af- 
firms that Jesus, the Son of God, came into the world, 

23 



24 Only a P SSioK. 

lived, suffered, died, rose again the third day, as- 
cended into heaven and sitteth at the right hand of 
God the Father Almighty, from whence He shall 
come to judge the quick and the dead. Now, how 
can this man know that this Book is what it claims 
to be — the Word of God; that Jesus of Nazareth 
is what this Book claim- He is — the Son of God, 
the Savior of the world? If this Book is the beat 

book in the world, and vet is only the work of men's 
Is and hands, h< not wish to accept it as 

an infallible guide in all matters of faith — as a mes- 
from tl 
[f J as the wisest and best of men, and only 

a man, he d< >es n< »t wish t< > W( irship I Km ; but if I le 
I and gi to a perishing, lost 

1 — the Way, the Truth, and the Life; if no man 

;h untO the Father hut by Him, he d<>e- not 

wish t<> reject Ilim. Now, how can this man insure 

himself against becoming the dupe of superstition 

on the one hand, or the victim of unbelief <>n the 
other e men have sought to avoid error and 

evade risibility by making some Church their 

final arbiter concerning doctrine and duty. What- 
ever their Church teaches, unquestionably the;, 

: whatever their Church commands, unhesi- 
tatingly they do. It is true they attain to a certain 



I low tii Know. 25 

kind ^\ peace; bu1 what a price they pay for it! 
I say n advisedly, a thousand-fold better know the 
awful suspense (, t" uncertainty, than arrive at p 
by becoming a mental suicidel 

I Others, because God has nol revealed all things, 
say, "He has made no revelation of I lis will to man ;" 
because Christianity has mysteries, declare "It is 
nothing but mystery." They do not deny that man 
may survive the tomb. They say, "No one knows, 
03 can know that he does." 

That must be a community with a small popula- 
tion, indeed, that does not contain these two classes — 
one refusing to be convinced, even by overwhelming 
arguments and proofs; the other ready to worship at 
any altar, if it is only ancient enough! 

To me it is inconceivable that there is a God all- 
wise and loving, and that 1 le has not made a revela- 
tion of His will to His creature, man. I can not 
believe that He has given me the ability to look into 
your faces and speak in such a way that you under- 
stand me, and to my cry for light on my relations t<> 
God and obligations to Him and on my duty and 
destiny He has made no response. To 1 [is creations' 
appeal for light lie has not been silent. He has 
spoken to man. The Bible recognizes that some men 
refuse to admit its claims; but it declares that they 



26 Only a P >x. 

who refuse to be convinced by the proofs it off 
and the motives it urges, would remain unconvinced 
and unmoved though one rose from the dead. The 
unbeliever lacks not light, but the disposition to come 
to it. I know some men who seem to think that they 
entitled to eternal life because they admit there 
1. The Bible, on the contrary, instead of rep- 
in the existeno s some- 

thing especially pr rthy, an of saving 

faith, shows that d< tar as that 

In ten thousand churches this morning men and 
men rose and reverently said. "I believe in Cod 

the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, 
and in Christ His only Son, our Lord;" and 

if that • merely a I tad 

the Father and God the Son, devils can truthfully 
pond, "We also beli lames says, "Thou 

believest that there is one God; thou doest well; the 

devils also helieve and tremhle." The faith enter- 
tained by devils surely can not he saving faith. 
'Jdie man wh- > can -'an*! i >n the mountain < >verl< n Icing 
this beautiful city to-night, with the lights from a 
thousand happy homes flashing on his sight, and say, 

"] do net helieve that there IS Mich a being in the 

rid as man." would he n<> more unreasonable than 
the man who to-night gazes tip into the heavens that 



l [( >w in Know. 27 

declare the glory of God and the firmament thai 
showeth His handiwork, and says, "I do not believe 
there is a God." In one of the famous buildings of 
the world there is the name of its architect and the 
reminder, "If you would behold his work, look 
around you." So we would say to the unbeliever, 

"Look around you : the earth is full of the goodness 
and glory ^>\ God." 

Our text is one o\ the passages of Scripture that 

is much better translated in the Xew than in the 
Revised Version. The Xew Version renders this 

. "If any man wills to do the will of God," 
earnestly and sincerely desires to do the will of God, 
he shall know of the doctrine. Augustus Hare, com- 
menting on these words, saws: "It does not say if 
any man goes to church twice on Sundays and hears 
sermons, or reads two chapters of the Bible in his 
home every day, that he shall know of the doctrine. 
By going to church and heading sermons on Sun- 
and reading your Bibles in your home, you can 
learn what the doctrine is; but by sincerely trying to 
do it you will learn what is far more important — 
that it is of God — and feel its heavenly power to 
save/ 1 T am not here to explain away my text. It 
aftirm^, if any man wills to do the will of God he 
shall know of the doctrine. It is a prevalent idea 



28 Only a Proi 

of cur times, that those who saw the works and 
heard the word ir Lord enjoyed opportunities 

for arriving at the truth oi His claims that arc de- 
nied us. I believe that we may be as sure that Jesus 

the Son of God, that He ha* from the tomb 

and become the firstfruits of them that sleep, as we 

>uld be if He were to appear to us as He did to 
St. John on the Island of Patmos, resplendently glori- 

S and beautiful, and sa] : "1 am He that liveth and 

ad; and behold 1 am alive for evermore, 
Amen; and have the keys of lull and death." It is 
a different kii hut it i- n^ less c 

vincing, "He that believeth on the Son hath the 
witness in hims< 

Thi vrering whether the teach- 

1. is approved by the 
practici archer after 

truth in Other fi can Only learn 

by I had been h< >rn blind, and 

remained blind till this morning, and then l->,,ked 
OUt for the first time on the glories of a -prin-- day. 

This morning's vision would have taught me more 

what - . than a SCOre of lectures on the laws 

I had never tasted honey till 
now. Give me one mouthful of Southern California 
honeycomb, and I would know more about the ta 



I low fO Know. 2<J 

of honey than I could learn from a hundred ad- 
David says, "< ) taste and see that the Lord is 
." Some truths we can only learn through ex- 

Now, my complaint against many a man who is 
honest in Others matters, is that he is unfair and in- 
sincere when he comes to deal with Christianity. 
We give no weight to the opinions of a man on any 

subject who has never taken the trouble to exam- 
ine it. 

It is thirty years since I plowed my last furrow. 
I did it three thousand miles from here. The 

. climate, soil, were all different. Suppose I 
were to go to-morrow to the farm of some intelligent, 
successful tiller of the soil, and begin to give him ad- 
vice on how he should manage his farm. I could not 
say much on such a subject, without showing how 
little I knew about it. If that farmer is here, and 
his wife is a Christian and he is not, I can imagine 
him to-morrow night saying to her: "That minister 
we heard over at the church last night was out in the 
field where I was working to-day. You should have 
heard him run on about farming, lie knows noth- 

about it. If 1 had no more experience than he 
has on the subject, I would keep quiet." 



30 Only a Profession, 

Suppose a man who has grown gray in the study 
of practical chemistry is in this congregation. He 
is not a Christian. I have forgotten the little I (Mice 
knew about chemistry. I can not even recall the 
nomenclature of the subject. To-morrow I repair 
to his laboratory. I could not speak a minute with- 
out exposing my ignorance. Suppose 1 should offer 
ttle offhand the questions in his calling that 
after a lifetime of study and experiment still per- 
plex and baffle him. I imagine him giving his expe- 
rience with me to his Christian wife: "Well, I had a 
-day ; the man who preached to us last night 

lectured to me to-day. If he does not know more 

about the Bible than he d< n - ah' nit chemistry, I never 
i hear him preach again. How can a 
thoughtful man respect one who presumes to hold 
opinions and make statements on a subject that he 
has never taken the trouble to look up"" And he 
would he right. But what should we say of the 
n. an who never has honestly examined and tested the 

claims of Christianity, and yet entertains and ex- 
pinions hostile to it? Is that fair? What 
are his opinions worth under such circumstai 
For his own sake, and for the sake of others, he 
should on a question of such vital importance neg- 
lect nothing that will help him arrive at right con- 



I [( >w ro Know! 31 

elusions. Will you employ our Lord's method for 
the discovery of truth ? 

ok said. "God does nol wish any man 

to pill«>w his dying head on a guess/ 1 God does not 

wish any man in health to pillow his head on a guess. 

Our happiness and usefulness, as well as our safety, 

nake it important that we be sure. 

An old Puritan divine has reminded US that the 

three principal doctrines of Christianity a r e: Ruin 
through sin. redemption through Christ, and regen- 
eration through the Holy Ghost. Every man who 
becomes a Christian proves these. Take the first, 
Ruin through sin. That is not a doctrine found only 
in the Bible. As face answereth to face in water, 
so the daily newspaper, with its stories of deceit and 
dishonesty and cruelty, confirms the statements of 
the Bible, that man is a fallen being*. It was not 
a member of an orthodox Church who wrote, "Hu- 
man history is written with a pen dipped in filth 
and blood." A man may admit in a g'eneral way 
that he is not as good as he ought to be, and yet not 
■jreatly depressed by that fact. Here is one who 
: "1 am not living* as I should. T must turn over 
a new leaf." At first he is more amused than pained 
by his failure to keep his good resolves. But if he 
is honest and earnest, I know how it will turn out. 



2,2 Only a Profession. 

Every day this man gets clearer views of his own 
weakness and sinfulness, and of the justice and 
holiness of God, till in an agony of despair, if he had 
a thousand worlds he would give them all for Christ. 
The Bible that has condemned him bids him hope. 
lie prays. He knows In n. A strati 

him. ] [e sings with Charles Wesley : 

" li< m cm a sinner know 

II: :i ? 

How can my 
My name inscribed in heaven? 

What we h ■■•■ 

With confidence we tell ; 
And publish to the - ten 

The signs Lnfallil 

We who in Christ believe 

lied, 

•.known | 

And t\< ipplied 

.nits our rising soul, 
' widened of her load, 
An unutterably full 

I tod." 

'I he doctrine that a man may know that the 

: O -I is true — if it rested on 

one clear, unmistakable, undisputed passage of 

would be sufficient for a Christian; but it 

1< oks rea» liable, because : 



I low To Know. 33 

i. The man who wills to do the will of God will 
give religion the attention it deserves. Where one 
man perishes through making intellectual difficulties 
stumbling-blocks, a score are lost because of sheer 

led of religion. 

2. The man who wills to do the will of Cod will 
not let a wicked life darken his mind and unfavor- 
ably influence his creed. Some one may object that 
a man's creed influences his life, and not his life 
affects his creed. Error in life will inevitably be fol- 
lowed by evil thinking. 

If I determine to pursue a certain course of con- 
duct, I will be led to attempt to twist all things so 
that they will harmonize with my course, both to 
justify myself to myself and to others. There are 
far more heart difficulties than head difficulties. 
Hear our Savior: "And this is the condemnation, 
that light is come into the world, and men loved 
darkness rather than light, because their deeds were 
evil, For every one that doeth evil, hateth the light, 
neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be 
reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the 
light, that his deeds may be made manifest that they 
are wrought in God." Or, again, "How can ye be- 
lieve, ye that seek honor one of another ?" The only 
way to retain truth is to love it and obey it. as will 
3 



34 Only a PROFESSION, 

be seen from the following: "And even as they did 
not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave 
them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things 
which arc not convenient." "If therefore thine eye 
be -ingle, thy whole bod}- shall be full of light. But 
if thine eye be evil, thy \ dy shall be full of 

darkness/ 1 A false creed will be the outcome of a 
vicious life. 

3. lie who wills to do the will of God will not, 

by dinj in, make it impossible for God 

to grant him pardon and peace and purity. 

"Let the wicked forsake his way and the 1111- 

bteOUS man his thoughts; and let him return unto 
the Lord and lie will have mercy upon him, and to 
our God. for He will abundantly pardon/' "If we 

ard iniquity in our hearts, the Lord will not hear 
u.\" After c: upon my work in a certain 

community, a man of some prominence there v. 
terribly mangled by an explosion. He was Conscious 
during the three hours between the accident and his 
death, but in such pain that he did not Speak a COn- 

u-d sentence. Some months later a former pas- 

tor said to me: "The death <>f Mr. A. has made 
me, because of an experience 

that I knew he passed through when I was pa-tor 
here. At a time when man} were being saved he 



HOW TO I\\<>\v. 35 

apparently became deeply interested in the subjed 
of religion. He seemed a mosl earn* r. More 

than a week passed, and lie found no relief. One 

night, after the congregation had been dismissed 

and had departed, he remained kneeling at the altar. 
I bent over him and said: "Mr. A., is there an}' 
one against whom you are holding a grudge? If 

yon are unwilling- to forgive, God will not forgive 
yon.' lie replied, 'I am ready to forgive all my 
enemies/ I continued, 4 Mr. A., have you ever 
wronged any one in business and not made it right V 
I le sprang to his feet and replied, 'Do you mean that 
if I have cheated any one that I must pay him back?' 
I answered, 'If you have another man's money in 
your pocket, God will not touch you till you have 
made restitution, or are willing to do so as far as 
in your power to do so.' While faithfully urging 
him to yield up his ill-gotten gains he said to me : 
'I have not an honest cent in the world. If I were 
to do what you say God requires it would beggar 
me.' He grew sullen, and went out of the church 
and ceased from that night to be a frequenter of 
the house of the Lord, declaring that he had 'tried 
Christianity, and that there is nothing in it.' He 
became an awful example of the Scriptures, 'He 
that bring often reproved hardeneth his neck 



36 Only A PROFESSION. 

shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without 
remedy. 1 " 

4. He who wills to do the will of God will not be 
wanting in that teachable spirit upon which God has 
promised His blessing. 

The Bible abounds in promises to the meek. 
"The meek will He guide in judgment; the meek 
will lie teach I lis way." "If thou incline thine ear 

to wisdom, and apply thy heart to understanding; 
yea, if thou cri r knowledge and liftest tip thy 

voice f<>r ui if thou seekest her as sil- 

ver, and searchest for her a- for hid treasures; then 
shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find 

tile know ' d." 

In Cardinal Newman's "Lead, kindly Light/ 1 he 

shows why many a one remains in darkness when 
Ik 

■ I was not ever thus, nor prayed that Thou 
Shonldst Lead me <>n ; 

I loved to * ' e my path ; hut now 

id Thou me on ! 

I loved the gari8fa day, and. spite of ft- u 
Pride ruled my will." 

lia Thatcher has told us how a little child 

hi her the v. 

u The childish \ 

Sweet toned and lng me 

1 1 am bo Little, Granny, d- 
Please lift me up bo 1 can 



How to Know. 

i Looked down .it the pleading face, 
Pelt the small hands 1 entreating touch, 

And, Btooping, caught in swift embi 
The baby boy I Loved bc- much, 

And held him Up that he might j^aze 

At the great pageant of the Bky, 
The glory of the sunset's blaze, 
The glittering moon that curved on high. 

With Speechless love I clasped him close, 
And read their beauty in his eves, 

And on his fair cheek kissed the rose, 
Sweeter than blooms of Paradise. 

And in my heart his eager prayer 
Found echo, and the self-same cry 

Rose from its depths through heaven's air, 
O, gracious Father, lift me high ! 

So little and so low am I, 

Among earth's mists I call to Thee, 

Show me the splendors of Thy sky! 
O, lift me Up, that I may see !" 

If any man wills to do the will of God he shall 
know of the doctrine. I care not what his tempera- 
ment, intellectual peculiarity, or education may be. 
[f he is open-minded and open-hearted and earnest, 
the outcome will be he will recognize in Jesus of 
Nazareth the Savior of the world, and cry with 
Thomas, "My Lord and my God!" There is much 
speculation about truth that is insincere. We have 
a book, a translation from the German. I wish it 



38 Only a Profession. 

had a less sensational title. It is called "Letters 
from Hell." Its logic is inexorable. It represents 
Philip, who had lived a selfish life OH the earth, as 
being in the abode of lost spirit-. There is a river 
of lies in that unhappy world, fed by lies from the 
earth ; for, according to the theory oi this hook, every 

lie, like every liar, [ hell, I suppose about 

election time it Overflows its hanks! As Philip was 

wanderin] the river of lies he 

saw a man vainly trying to wash the blood-stains 

from his hand-. When Philip drew mar the 

stran I to him. "What is truth?" and Philip 

gprized in his qu< Pilate, — Pilate washing 

ands in the river of lies and asking, "What IS 

truth?" IK- who is unwilling to obey the truth will 
not long retain the truth 1 3. The man 

who holds the truth in unrighteousness will soon 
he walking in darkness. < hi the other hand, if you 
the light you have, it will surely be 
increased. 

u Though m iy tread, 

Dreary perplexities may thread, 
Through dark ways underground be Led, 

I our Gui 
The dreariest path, the darkest day, 

Will i>suc forth in heavenly day." 



I I. >w po Kn< »\v. 39 

I heard Miss Sarah Smiley relate i in 

structive and impressive story. She had been hold- 
ing a series of meetings in a wild section of the 
South twenty miles from a railroad. One night the 
- closed, and with a timid girl companion 
and an unknown driver she began her journey. The 
night was intensely dark. The road was rough. 
She could not sec anything around her. The wagon 
pitched and plunged. She was against the driver. 
She thought he had fallen asleep, and she chided him 
for being so indifferent to their safety, when he re- 
plied, "I am finding my way through the sky." She 
looked up and saw through the dense underbrush 
what had hitherto been hidden from her — the way. 
Believe me, God has revealed many things to the 
upturned face and uplifted heart that are hidden 
from the worldly wise and prudent. Every step 
'.I Jesus is a step toward the light, for He has 
said, "I am the Light of the world; he that followeth 
Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the 
light of life." 



III. 

THE ALL-CONQUERING CHRIST. 

u For He must reign until He hath put all enemies 

under His feet." — l COR, w. 25. 

About nineteen hundred years ago One who was 
cradled in a manger, "who had not where to lay 
His head," who was crucified on a malefactor's 

sSj "at whose death nun shouted for joy as if a 
cur.se had been swept from the earth," and wh< 

ly (ay foi 3 in a b urowed tomb, 

tablished a new system of religion. This man, if 
I may call Him man, so humble in condition, 
mighty in word and work, making such astonishing 

claims and demand- for Hin d that lk- 

had come from heaven to complete God's plan for 
the salvation of man. He declared that His mission 

was all the works of the devil; that Ik- 

had come to bring light to the benighted, joy to the 
rrowing, hope to tin- despairing, and holiness to 
the sinful; that He had com ferthrow every 

wrong, and to make Straight earth's many crooked 

40 



Tin: Ai L-CONQURRING ChRI .\ I 

path-. He predicted thai the kingdom He founded 
would be everywhere spoken againsl and assailed on 
every side; that its firsl advocates would seal their 

lony with their Mood, but that in the fa< 
all opposition it would advance, that notwithstand- 
ing persecution it would spread. When He spake 
His parting words to His disciples on Mount Olivet, 
He said to them: "Go ye therefore and teach all 
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, 
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching 
them to observe all things whatsoever I have com- 
manded you ; and lo, I am with you alway, even 
unto the end of the world. 1 ' As if He had said to 
them, "Go and take the world for Me." This com- 
mand is addressed to all Christians, in every age, 
until every human being is converted. He who said, 
"Go preach to every creature," added, 'Xo, I am 
with you alway, even unto the end of the world/' 
The command and the promise reach unto the ^nd. 
Well has Dr. Van Dyke said : "The Church of Jesus 
Christ was founded as a missionary enterprise. It 

not intended to stand still, but to 'Go/ It was 
not intended to be self-contained, but to 'make dis- 
ciples and baptize them in the name of the Father, 
the Son, and the Holy Ghost.' It was not intended 
to be silent, but to 'teach the things' that Christ 



42 Only a Profession. 

commanded. It is the very essence of Christianity 
that it is an advancing", conquering religion. The 
Church is the body in which the Spirit of Christ 
is to live and work. The Spirit of Christ is missions. 
'When that Spirit wanes, the Church is sick; when 
that Spirit dies, the Church expires. 1 " 

A failure to enter heartily into the task and trust 
committed to the Church by her Lord involves the 
iture of her .1 charter with all its glori- 

ous provisions and promises. But to fail to enter 
the "open door* 1 does more even than this, God, 
who s fr<>m Olivet by His Son, in these 

latter days has been speaking t<> the Church by 
1 xovidence and the >f the 1 [oly I ih< >st 

The Church can nOW r If to the 

undertaking, to which her I .« <rd gave Himself, only 

by being disobedient to the heavenly vision of "a 

new earth !" 

At the time that Jesus of Xa/areth gave this 

command and promi His foil they only 

numbered a few hundreds. lat< r a man 

who had once been a bitter opposer and persecutor 

of the new faith, hut who had in tl imu bt- 

a Christian, was writing to a little body of 
believers. During these years there had 

th, but yet very little to encourage one who puts 



Tp I 43 

value only upon the things thai can be seen. From 

a human standpoint, the history, doctrines, and the 

f this new religion, all seemed to make 

uccessful propagation an impossibility. Its ad- 
were few, and poor and despised and un- 
learned. Some one has told us that twelve coolie 
Chinamen, landing at San Francisco, purposing to 
change the faith of the people of the United States, 
from a human standpoint, would not be entering 
upon a more hopeless and desperate undertaking 
than that of the first disciples. Moreover, Chris- 
tianity was a faith that was opposed to every other 
system of religion. It was the policy of ancient 
Rome, when she conquered a people, to leave 
them their religion intact ; nay, more, to put their 
god in the list of deities to be worshiped; but she 
could not do this with Christianity, for it was a faith 
that refused to compromise with any other religious 

m. It declared that it would be satisfied with 
nothing short of the complete overthrow of every 
other religion. Christians were not content to have 

- worshiped as one of many gods, because they 
claimed the whole world for their Master, and that 
all other gods were false. Hence there has been an 
irrepressible conflict going on for nearly nineteen 



44 Only a P 

centuries, which can only cease when every other 
religion has Ik and Jesus has put all 

enemies under IIi> feet As Hugh StoweU says: 

"The priest, the sophist, the philosopher and poli- 
tician, the polytheist and the atheist, were all arrayed 

ainst the Gospel. To the Jew it f a stumbling 

k, and to the Greeks foolishness. 1 The worldly- 
wise exclaimed. 'What will these babblers say? and 
the skeptical, 'Tl. m t<> be setters forth of 

ange gods/ B all these arrayed against 

them, the ad everywhere to 

contend with the COITUpt heart of man. They came 

make peace with -in. hut I war of 

ime not to Batter, 
hut to humble; not to indulge man, but to require 
him to deny hii 'lure men. as did Mo- 

hammed, to a pan lity, but to teach a 

religion that bind- crucify the flesh 

with its and lu how the pride of 

their reason and the iron sinew ^\ their will at the 
• i >f the en: m that challeng 

the lete subi of the understanding, 

while it demands the unsparing mortification of the 

1 as titered into no ,• with 

tin They never sophisticated ; never 

led the distasteful truth. They knew no re- 



Tin: All-Conqi i.K'i so Christ. 45 

serve ; they determined to kn< >w nothing among Gen- 
tiles or Jews but 'Christ and Him crucified/" 
When St Paul penned my text to the Church at 
nth, Christianity had gained onl) & feeble foot- 
bold in a Few of the great cities of the world. If 
lie looked toward his own country lie saw Judaism 
entrenched behind wealth, numbers, social power, 
and prejudice. If be looked toward Greece and 
Rome be saw a classic heathen temple crowning 
many a hilltop and nestling" in many a valley. Yet 
be was as confident of the triumph of Christ's cause 
as he could have been if be, like St. John on Fatmos, 
had heard the heavenly voice crying, "The kingdoms 
of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord 
and His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and 
ever." In the fifteenth chapter of his first letter 
to the Church at Corinth St. Paul repeatedly speaks 
of the headship and government of Jesus. Inspired 
of God he looks into the future and beholds the 
long struggle between right and wrong. He sees 
sin defeated, death a captive, every foe overcome, 
Christ King over all, and he exclaims, "For He 
must reign until Tie hath put all enemies under TIN 
feet." He beholds the time when Christ will lay 
down Tlis mediatorial office and shall become the 
judge of the quick and the dead, and he beholds 



46 Only a Profession. 

Him resigning up to His Father the universal do- 
minion given Hiir. when He wrought out on the 
cross th • salvation of the race. But before this He 
is to triumph over the world. The Gospel He sent 
His disciples to preach is to become the faith of all 
nations. The central truth of our text is that Christ 
is to win the world to Himself — that Christianity 
to become the universal religion of the earth. The 
Old and New Testaments are full of this doctrine. 
St. Paul's \ r He must reign until lie hath 

put all enemies tinder 11;- feet," seem to be an echo 
of Isaiah's wor referring to Christ, "He shall 

not fail n<>r aged till He have set judgment 

en the earth." The \ A the apostle and the 

rds of the prophet are as much in harmony as are 

"two strings of a seraph's harp," — Christ victorious, 

the doctrine of both the old and the new dispensa- 
tions. In the very fir . of the Bible we find 
God declaring that tl of the woman shall 
bruise the serpent's head. He told Abraham that 
in his seed, which is Christ, all nations of the earth 
should be I In the Psalms we are told that 
God has given the heathen to His Son for an in- 
heritance, and the uttermost parti of the earth for a 
possession. Isaiah prophesied: "It shall come t<> 
pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord's 



Th i Ail >NQ1 i.kiw, ChRI 47 

house shall be established in the top of the moun- 
tains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all 
nations shall flow unto it." A time will conic when 
the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord 
as the waters cover the seas. While many proph- 
ecies show that Christ's kingdom is to fill the earth, 
the beginning of that kingdom is humble and seem- 
ingly insignificant. David was unconsciously proph- 
esying of a greater kingdom than Solomon's when 
he wrote: "There shall be a handful of corn in 
the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit 
thereof shall shake like Lebanon; and they of the 
city shall flourish like grass of the earth. His name 
shall endure forever; His name shall be continued 
as long as the sun, and men shall be blessed in 
Him ; all nations shall call Him blessed. Blessed 
be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth 
wondrous things. " In another place this kingdom 
is represented as a small stone, cut out of the moun- 
tain without hands, increasing until it filled the whole 
earth. Jesus Himself represented it as a grain of 
mustard seed or a little leaven. That the kingdom 
which our Lord founded, and whose final and com- 
plete triumph He predicted, will fail to subdue the 
whole earth no Christian can believe. Xo one who 
accepts the Bible ever doubts the success of the Re- 



48 Only a Profession. 

deemers cause if he does not take counsel of his 
fears, instead of the word of the Lord. For this 
patriarchs have waited, and saints have prayed, and 
apostles toiled, and martyrs died. For this the mil- 
lions of the Church militant daily pray when they 
. "Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done in earth 
: n heaven." This 1 ved in the bosoms 

of the men who, in Christian or in heathen fields, 
have been most honored with success by the 
Master. When the Church or individual Christian 
IS livir to God this conception is clear and 

distinct. In times of spiritual decline it grows dim. 
When the Church, filled with the missionary spirit, 
with the Bible in her heart and hands, has -one forth 
rk that she is commissioned to do, 
felt that final victory is certain, and has voiced 
her desire and faith in such hymns as — 

Soon may the ' r, 

Through all the millions of th 
Th f triumph which records 

That all the earth is now the Lord's. 

ind kingdoms he 
Obedient, mighl 

And over land, and stream, and m 
Now wave the » thy reign." 

Howei ' men, overlooking God's 

promises and the resources of the Captain of our 



49 

salvation, and seeing only the foes thai oppo 
to think thai the only thing that remains to be done 
make a successful retreat, like Xenophon's ten 
thousand Greeks. But it was not for this that Jegus 

sent forth His soldiers, but to wage a war of con- 

quest 

w Till not one rebel heart remains, 
But over all the Savior reigns." 

Take away the hope of final victory from the Church, 
and she is already more than half defeated. Let the 
belief become general among Christians that Chris- 
tianity has no further victories to win, that her mis- 
sion henceforth is simply to hold what she has gained, 
and that the Gospel is not able to cope with the 
world's evil and secure the w r orld's conversion, and 
the very heart of missionary effort will cease to beat. 
Pit\- for the heathen may remain. But those who 
pour out their money for the missionary cause, and 
who cry unto God day and night for the unsaved, 
or who hasten to heathen lands with the story of 
Calvary, will have, mingling with pity for the 
heathen, love for Christ and zeal to promote His 
cause and faith in His ultimate triumph. 

But it may be asked, What do you mean by 
Christ's winning this world for Himself? I mean 
that a time will come when a knowledge of the true 
4 



50 Only a PROFESSION, 

Cod will be universal ; when human law will be in 
accord with divine law; when sin, the fruitful 
mother of tyranny and war and disease, will be ban- 
ished from the earth, the rod of the Oppressor broken, 

-word of the warrior laid aside, every need sup- 
plied, every tear wiped away ; when earth will be- 
come a reflection of heaven. To banish sorrow and 
>in, poverty and pain from the world, however hope- 
l — the undertaking may appear to some, all will 
admit is the consumrriati rerythinj us in 

human ambition and effort. I lew men haw longed 

the time when millions now trained and SUp- 

p« -it- ly t( i spring at one another's 

throats, will be free to engage in beneficent and 

fill pursuits; when they shall brat their SWOrdfi 

into plowshares and their spears into pruning-hooks ; 

when nation shall not lift up SWOrd against nation, 

neither shall they learn war any more; "when," as 

the poet sinj 

bird of the south 

ill build in every cannon's mouth, 
Till tin.* only sound from its rusty tin-- 

11 he the wren's or bluebird's n< 
How thousands worse than widowed and or 

phaned 1 hed \<>v the time when no one will 

put the etip that <: to In- neighbor's Upsl 



The Au^-CONQl BR] NG ChR] 

Will t 1km i i nc never come when, in place of the fierce- 
of competitive strife and drudgery driven to 
death, there will be co-operation and mutual helpful- 
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. 
Siikv we find this doctrine taught in the Bible, even 
if we had nothing else, this ought to be sufficient to 
convince and satisfy us. But if we look at Chris- 
tianity itself and its history, how much there is to 
confirm our faith! We find it adapted to meet the 
wants and needs of the race; not the people of one 
land only, but of all lands. Every inquiry of men 
in earnest is answered, every longing- and yearning 
for holiness is satisfied in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 
Though you are familiar with the trials and tri- 
umphs of the Church in the past, yet a brief review 
of them will not be without profit. Though we do 
not \et see all things put under the feet of our Mas- 
ter, yet for eighteen hundred years He has been 
doing it. Though the prophecy of our text has not 
been fulfilled, yet it is being fulfilled. Were I to 
ask, "What is the greatest foe to the propagation 
of true religion, and therefore to the Christianization 
of the world?" I would receive very different an- 
swers from intelligent Christians. One would reply, 
"Idolatry or paganism is the greatest foe to over- 
Another, "Ecclesiastical corruption and 



52 Only a Profession. 

tyranny as represented by the Church of Rome." 
Still another thinks that learned unbelief is most to 
be feared. We have been recently reminded that 
these undoubtedly are the trinity of foes that oppose 
the advance of Christ's cause. What success has 
the Church had in battling with these enemies in 
the past? All she holds she has won from them. 

Early Rome and Greece were pagan nations. The 
former was the conqueror of the known world. The 
latter became the teacher of those who had subdued 

hen " ( toe ruled the bodies, the other the minds of 
men. The rhetoricians and logicians, the orators 

and poets, the sculptors Of ancient Greece have never 

d surpassed, if they have ever been equaled, by 
th( any other people. Against the cause of 

Jesus, Rome representing the physical and Greece 

the intellectual p i" the world united, hu- 

manly speaking, there was never a more unequal 
A What was the result of the contest? As 

Dr. dimming has said, "Starting at the empty tomb 

of their Lord, the first ambassadors of Christianity 

went forth to subdue the earth, with no patronage 

but an open world, and no help but in Him who had 

promised to be with them. Weakness prevailed 

ainst might, and few againsl many, and the lone 

fishers <>f Galilee against the Caesars. Humility over- 



Tm: All-Conquering Chri . 

threw pride, and love triumphed over hatred, and 
naked truth, the unarmed child, overcame the Mace- 
donian phalanx and the Roman legion and Satanic 
5, until the vine of Israel shot up and gracefully 

WOUnd its tendrils around the scepter and mingled 
them with the laurels of the C;e>ars, and at length 
the hated religion of a corner of the Roman Empire 

became the faith of countless nations and the hope 
and stay and joy of humanity." But the soldiers 

of the cross were not only victorious over Rome and 
Greece, but also over the wild and savage hordes 

that conquered these countries. Hispania, Gaul, and 
the countries of the north were subdued. Druidism, 
with its bloody rites, gave place to the religion of 
gentleness and love. The brave and bloodthirsty 
Norsemen were tamed by the story of the cross. 

We who are assembled here to-day are the de- 
scendants of the most cruel and savage pagans that 
the world has ever known. Surely we should not 
air concerning the cause of missions. I have 
not the heart or the time to notice the long night of 
papal darkness, when papal Rome persecuted Cod's 
le with a cruelty that surpassed pagan Rome, 
:ond time the blood of martyrs became the seed 
of the true Church. Cod raised up Luther, who won 
for the world civil and religious liberty. Some think- 



54 Only a Profession. 

that the wave of the Reformation has spent its 
force — that the tides of the world's forces are set- 
ting towards Romanism again. This is not true. 
I am not here to tell you that the Romish Church 
is not a foe to th< md crown of our Lord Jesus 

Christ. I do not share in the belief that she has 
been so liberalized that she has ceased to be a menace 
to civil and religious liberty. Semper idem — always 
same — is her b iast. She is the same on the I fud- 
son that she is on the Tiber, Her blasphemous 
claims have not abated i The tireless energy 

that has sent her and emissari the most 

atherings not changed. The plotting 

disposition thai caused her to .-end her secret agents 

into the ministry of the different Protestant deiiomi- 
:is, that she might I QOW when and where 

sudden and deadly blow, is the same. 
She is r at Albany as at Rome, 

and if she doe- not use the arguments she once em- 
ployed, it is bi he dare not employ them. 
a brain as ready to plot, a heart a- cruel 

.rr; but her hand, SO often extended to vex the 

nations, has lost much of it- power. Her vile sor- 

ith which she hew itched the nations, have 

lost and are losing much of their accursed spell." 

In the chief city of her power owr a half-score of 



Tur Aii ,-< RING CHR] 

Protestant churches have been reared, and the num- 
nstantly increasing. The papal authorities 
are filled with alarm. Italy lias declared for civil 
ami religious liberty; Spain lias begun to wake from 
the sleep of centuries. The pure Word of God is be- 
ing preached in a few places in that beautiful hnt be- 
nighted land. Protestantism on the one hand, and in- 
fidelity m\ the other, are undermining her in France. 
Cathedrals, formerly her property in Mexico, now 
resound with Protestant preaching* and teaching. In 
the United States she only holds her own by the im- 
migration of thousands of her devotees annually 
from other lands. She has lost more to Protestant- 
ism in Italy and Mexico alone in five years than she 
gained from Protestantism in all lands in ten 
5, The number of earnest, sincere men in her 
fold is growing daily wdio insist upon her returning 
to the faith once delivered unto the saints, and if 
reform within fails will leave her communion. 
Rome's cathedrals, many of them marvels of the 
architect's skill, will yet resound with the preaching 
of the Gospel, and "sinners will there be pointed, 
not to Mary, but to Mary's Son." 

Xow let us consider the position of modern in- 
fidelity. In a hundred years there has never been a 
time before when there were so few infidels rela- 



56 Only a Profession. 

tively as now. The timid have been alarmed by the 
boastings and pretentious claims of these men. A 
gle secular university in the Empire State has 
now more students who are members of Evangelical 
Churches than all the colleges and universities of 
the country contained a centur 

ur modern infidels are only the pupils of the 
ancient pagan Greek and Roman philosophers who 
were vanquished by the early Church fathers. There 
is not a single philosophical argument urged against 

Christianity to-day that was not advanced and re- 
futed over a thousand years ago, Macaulay, who 
thorough ir.,- k and R< >man hist >ry, 

literature, and philosophy, well remark-: "Chris- 
tianity is not now left for the first time to rely on the 
n evidences and the attraction of its 
own beauty. Its sublime th< unfounded the 

Grecian schools in the fair conflict of reason with 
reason. The bravest and wisest of the Caesars found 
their arms and their policy unavailing when opposed 
to the weapons that were n< it carnal, and to the king- 
dom that was not of this world. The victory that 

Porphyry and Diocletian failed to gain is not to all 
appearance '1 for any of those who have in 

this age directed their attacks against the last re- 
straint of the powerful and the last hope of the 
wretched." 



Tim: Alio BRIST. 57 

l.ri us now turn for a few moments to the con- 
dition of our foreign missionarj work. At a time 
since the birth of some now living those enterp 
were inaugurated. Some high in authority mocked 
and opposed when it was proposed to send the Gos- 
pel to the heathen. You remember Dr. Ryland's 
command to Carey, when he began to plead the cause 
of the heathen : "Young man, sit down! When God 

ses to convert the heathen he will do it without 
your help or mine." Sydney Smith — an example of 
some who now call themselves Christians and yet 
oppose Foreign Missions — unrebuked said to a man 
who, with more love for Christ and the perishing 
than his associates, was taking his life in his hands 
in going to preach the Gospel to cannibals, "I hope 
that you will not disagree with the man who eats 
you." 

But how great the change of sentiment in the 
Church on the question of missions since those 
days ! And what hath God wrought through the 
missionary cause in sixty years! The Gospel has 
not lost its power to save savage men. 

Many of you remember how we were thrilled 
years ago by Bishop Warren's testimony at our 
Conference love-feast, when he told of having met 
and heard in the great London love-feast, where the 



58 Only a P 

representatives of universal Methodism were gath- 
ered together, men who had not m the taste 
of human flesh, who had once been cannibals, tell 
of the 

There is hardly a triumph of the Cross recorded 
in the Act- of the A; that 1 can nol find a 

parallel to in the hi The men 

who are standi] the picket-line of Christ's 

army in China. Japan, India, and Africa, all send 

hack the cheering tidings, "The morning 

Cometh." 

shop Thoburn, if his li I I t hall* a 

so: b i help storm th I >i hell 

with a jiilli- fl U ts in India. 

The fifteen thousand Chinese saints who laid 

.mi their J in the recmt I I ut- 

burst ^h<-w I ami genuine is the work 

in that land. 

And yet there ' much advance and growth 

that is simply prepai 

1 has kept the doors of heathen nations closed 

until lie had a Church that would take the Word of 

Life to them. He 1 tfl ready 

at battle s- ught. A- Bishop 

Sii: id: "The Christian army has keen drilled 

and equipped, and is, I believe, to make Mich an 



Tin: Am Conquering Christ. 59 

advance as the world has never seen, Roman roads 
and the protection of her government preceded 
Christianity's first great march. The steamship and 
the railroad, tunneling mountains and spanning con- 
tinents, the telegraph with its multitudinous wires 
encircling the earth in its network, the mastery of 
all languages, the triumph of science and art, to me 
portend the coming of an era of universal light and 
glory." 

After eighteen hundred years much of the earth- 
yet remains to be won for our Lord Jesus Christ ; 
but a general survey shows that Christian nations 
hold the wealth, power, and learning of the world. 
In the last ninety days the rulers of the five greatest 
nations of the globe have humbly knelt at the table 
of the Xazarene, as though unworthy to eat the 
crumbs that fell from it — a prophecy of the time 
when all crowns and hearts shall be at His feet. 
\\ nen Columbus discovered the river Orinoco, some 
one said that he had found an island. He replied : 
"No such river as that flows from an island. That 
mighty torrent must drain the waters of a conti- 
nent." When I consider the humble origin of 
Christianity, her doctrines, her advocates, the foes 
she has met, the victories she has won, I know that 
she ; s of c Jod. A wisdom greater than man's has 



60 Only a Prof 

directed ; an arm stronger than man's has delivered 
her. This river that s the 

whole world Ik. earthlj Erom 

of God. Pity for the perishing- and 1 
for the Ma rk. If 

obey not Chri- and 

h all natio: then mi:- :. Chris 

ri<L He has not only 
• ) our n 
aries, but He - of 

r the W In the work 

of winning tfa 

And th 

• - y 58 He has 
ht to make us 

of 

ui. If ur ministry in 

urch. that 

looks with and with high 

n the future, will | oin of 
will overtake her. 

We look to CI and Japan, and the 

I the & -implicating hands 

r the cry. "Come OS 



'fin-. Ai.i Conquering Christ, 6i 

and help us." We may not be able to go in person. 
Bui look at thai other company, made up of thou- 
sands of our most gifted and godly young men and 
women. They have heard that cry from heathen 

lauds. Their bands arc extended to us, too, as they 
plead, "Help us to go; O send us!" We can not 

plead ignorance of our Lord's command, of the 
needs of the heathen world, or our inability to help. 
Dives was no more certainly judged and punished 
for his selfishness than we shall be if we refuse a 
helping hand and turn a deaf ear to the nations 
naked and hungry and dying at our gates. You can 
not go to China ; but you can, if you have an ordi- 
nary income, support a preacher there who will not 
have to learn the customs or language of China. A 
man in average circumstances can support a native 
preacher in China, Japan, and India, or put a teacher 
to teaching, or a bed in a hospital to healing, or a 
press to printing there ! We shall meet the Christ 
and the multitudes that He has bidden us go to ! 
May we be so faithful in life's brief harvest day that 
we can call God to witness that we have done what 
we could to obey the One and save the others. 

May we prove good soldiers of the faith, that we 
may join in the shout and share in the joy of the 
great victor}' of [Ik- Captain of our salvation! 



IV. 

THE NATION'S MEMORIAL 

"Shall be spoken of for a manorial." — Makk xiv, q. 

It was in Bethany, just before our Lord laid 
down His life I the world. A woman whose 

heart was full of gratitude and love brought a box 
of ointment of spikenard, very precious, and she 

ke the box and poured the ointment upon His 
head A man who was a traitor in heart and a thief 
in act condemned her. But J< tmended what 

Judas had condemned. I te saw that even our selfish 

rid would i i her work, wrought with no 

thought of gain or fame. He decreed her immor- 
tality for this and the heavenly world, when IK- said: 
"She hath done what she could: she is come afore- 
hand to anoint My body to the burying. Verily I 
say unto you. Wheresoever this gospel shall be 
preached throughout the whole world, this also that 
she hath dour, shall be spoken of for a memorial of 
Irt." The more than eighteen centuries that have 

passed since then have buried in Oblivion the names 

62 



Tim: \.\i JON'S M EMORIAL. 

of many who held place and power. Students of 

ry have sought in vain to discover the nan 
kings who since that time have ruled over kingdoms. 
Monuments reared to commemorate the names and 
: the great have crumbled to dust, or the lan- 
guages in which the inscriptions were written have 
shared the fate of all things earthly and died. Who 
iti this audience can repeal the names of the women 
who were famed in Jerusalem, Alexandria, Ephesus, 
lOrinth,, and Rome eighteen hundred years ago for 
wit, wealth, or beauty? History preserves the names 
o\ hut a few of them. But Mary's act and name is 
known in every land. And after the stars have 
dropped out of the skies her name will be held in 
everlasting remembrance. From this event we learn 
that not only are the poor to be fed, the ignorant in- 
structed, the vicious reclaimed, evil to be exposed 
and opposed, but that good men are to be honored 
while they live. It is not enough that we build 
monuments to the memory of dead prophets and 
patriots. Those reformers in Church and State who 
Lghting the battles of truth and liberty deserve 
our CO-Operation, honor, and love. I have chosen 
the words 1 read to you a few minutes ago as a text, 
not because I wish to dwell at length upon the event 
they record, but because they furnish an appropriate 



64 Only a P >n< 

motto for my text this evening, "The Nation's Me- 
morial to Her Preservers, Dead and Living." Af- 

tion and religion have united in almost every age 
and land in teaching man that the dead have some 
claims upon the living. As one has said,* "It is an 
instinct of man that funeral ri impany 

his body to hi home. The ancient heathen 

could not cross the riv and reach the Klysian 

fields if his body lacked the proper ceremonies of 

ulture. However hasty the flight of the living. 
In- must -nil pause long enough to throw three hand- 
ful.- of dust upon thi mrade and 
pronounce a solemn hail and farewell. Otherwi 
that n must wander a hundred years on 

'tli' f the land of shades ere he find 

hammedan, and 

Christian, so different in religious faith, alike regard 

1 ground tl rest the ashes 

of the 1 ad. What tender memories, what in- 

iring hopes dusl und it ! Love, robbed by 

death of all she prized and cherish their dusl 

and memory, seel pot wl r she can guard 

tlie one and rear monuments to perpetuate the other. 

Nature's loveli< and retreats haw- been 

trt for the villages and cities of the dead, where 






Tin. Nation's Memorial, 

the mourner in quiel can weep and hope and pray. 
In at leasl some instances the Inscriptions over the 
dead to commemorate their greatness and goodness 
have saved the nations that wrote them from ob- 
livion. What treasures the archaeologist has 
humed from the tombs and sepulchers of Egypt ! 

The mortuary records of ancient Assyria, lull)} lull, 
and Persia have made US familiar with the life, cus- 
toms, religions, literature, and political changes of 

nations so distant in time and space. But next 
Thursday we are called not to visit and strew with 
flowers the graves of those who left our homes, but 
the sleeping places of those who laid clown or periled 
their lives that "the Government of the people, by 
the people, and for the people might not perish from 
the earth." Foremost in this work of honoring the 
memory of those to whom the country is so much 
indebted is the Grand Army of the Republic. One 
of the objects of this order is "To perpetuate the 
memory and history of the dead." Its purpose and 
spirit is set forth in the following declarations of 
principles: "To maintain true allegiance to the 
United States of America, based upon a paramount 
respect for, and fidelity to, the national constitution 
and laws: to discountenance whatever tends to 
weaken loyalty, incites to insurrection, treason, or 

5 



66 Only a Profession 

rebellion, or in any manner impairs the efficiency 
and permanence of our free institutions; and to en- 
courage tli. I of universal liberty, equal rights, 
and justice to all men/ 1 It is very fitting that th 
who survived the exposures and perils of the late 

war should meet at least once a year to strew the 
their dead comrades with flowers, and live 
gain the which constitute, and forever 

must constitute, to them the most important part 
of their lives. But the services of Decoration-day 
uld not be left to the survivors of the late war. 
We should count | iting in them the common 

privileg Churches deserted and in ruins 

are I the decline of piety in a community, 

Tli. g of pub! \ ith weeds 

and unmarked by any token of a people's gratitude 
are equally d ravincing pn m >fs i >f the decay i >f patri< >t- 
ism, The nation that pel her living her* 

or neglects th< a of her dead 01 not far 

from national degradation and extinction, The na- 
tion that £ their lives to 
save her, d perish. On the other hand, 
pie who hold in lively and lasting remem- 
brance the S and sacrifices of their county 

benefac - in spirit or can long he held 

in subjection to tyrants. The one nation of Europe 



Til i. N iTlON'S M BMORIAL. 67 

that has a day set apatl as sacred to the memo 

the nun who laid down their lives in her def< 
has been a nation thai has never remained in bondage 
to any tyrant, foreign or domestic. Switzerland has 
looked down for centuries from her rocky fastness, 
and has seen every country of continental Europe 
save herself overrun and laid waste by foreign 
armies. But her sons can truthfully say, "We have 
never been in bondage to any man/' "It is the uni- 
I custom of that nation of freemen to go out 
every year on the anniversaries of their great na- 
tional battles, and on the battle-field, with prayer and 
song, and solemn discourse, commemorate the deeds 
of those who struggled there." Five hundred and 
ninety years ago at Morgarten fourteen hundred 
Swiss defeated fifteen thousand Austrians and broke 
the yoke of Austrian rule. Five hundred and nine- 
teen years ago at Sempach, Switzerland completed 
what she began at Morgarten. Every year on the 
sixth of December at Morgarten, and on the ninth 
of July at Sempach, with song and prayer and devout 
speech the brave sons of brave sires celebrate the 
events that took place more than half a thousand 
years ago. Christians insist, and rightly too, that 
without a Sabbath Christianity would perish. If 
Piety needs one day in seven to enforce the claims 



68 Only a Pr • n;>- : 

of God, shall we begrudge patriotism two or three 
clays in the year in which to make the young familiar 
with the glorious history of their country and teach 
them what they owe to their native land? The spirit 
that condemns as sentimental and foolish the services 
. is the same spirit that condemned 
Mai " to her S ant But there 

rvance of l ] n-day that we do not 

advocate, hut It has beo me too common 

of late to spend the day in revelry and merry- 

e who had lov< out to 

the war who never came hack, or came hack to die 

tmds or die men who passed 

through the tempest and whirlwind of battle and 

yet Mirvive. to them tion-day can never !><• 

and mirth, hut a day of solemn mem- 

•i< ins. By your offerii 
and pn ext Thi help make the observ- 

ance of D general. But not for the 

I the dead only let US I i n their mem- 

:ii do little to add to the renown 

of that host whose "ta rnal camptn 

und are spread/ 1 To forget or neglect them. 

to show that we have no fellow-hip with the spirit 
that made them heroes and patriots. We can hardly 

timate fur good their example in influencing 



Tin: \ mil \'s M BMORIAI* 

this and succeeding generations, The good we have 
received from other rendered more precious; 

and therefore more secure, by the knowledge i 
what it has d st. England has no greater treasure 
than Westminster Abbey with its memories of cour- 
and devotion, a spot that holds the ashes of her 
st, bravest, and most unselfish sons. There phi- 
lanthropy, patriotism, and piety have their shrines. 
se who say that England owes her naval su- 
premacy entirely to her insular position, forget the 
spirit that the exploits of Nelson and Drake have 
inspired in the breasts of her seamen has done much 
to make her "mistress of the wave." Think you, 
would civil liberty be so secure in our land, if we 
were to forget those fields plowed with cannon, 
harrowed with lightning, drenched with blood, and 
planted with our country's noblest slain? We can 
hardly overestimate the influence upon the future 
of America of the loyalty displayed, when the door- 
posts of the temple of liberty were sprinkled with the 
life-blood of one from almost every Northern home 
that the angel of death might pass her by. The re- 
lation between past ages and our own is intimate and 
vital. 

" Prom the bards of the elder .'. 
Fragments of song float by, 

Like flowers in the streams of summer, 
Or stars in the midnight sky. 



jo m.v a Pro* 

ie plumes in the dust are scattered, 
Where the eagles of Persia flew, 

And wisdom is reaped from the furrenvs 
The plow of the Roman d: 

m the w ■':. C rusaders 

The pnanton 

But the Oted hermit 

In humanity's heart Lives on." 

But it may be urged that a Christian Church 
and the Holy Sabbath is not the place or time for 
such a theme. I answer, no place or time is 

nor patriotism. That is a false Chris- 
tianity that : ;<> the duties of cit- 
izenship. Piety and patriotism can not he divorced. 

There have been patl ho have not been Chris- 

tian-, but e i me ha- said : "Religious men have 

ever proved the truest patriots. The cause of free- 
to them than any other class. 
Tluy haw ever fought best and bravest in their 
counti ttles who sought another ad strong 

ith, at | 1, and sustained by the 

immortality, v whether, as one 

r martyrs expressed it, they rotted in the earth 

Or air, died amid holy pi r amid the shouts ol 

battle and the roar of cannon." I hit it has 

I that the observance of Decoration-day tends 

to keep alive the old sectional feuds. This : 



Tn r N \ n« >n's M i.mokiai.. 71 

:tion much urged by a class rightly described 
as having been "invincible in peace and invisible in 
war." These carpers make a plea that our brethren 
of the South would despise us if we listened to it. 
We owe it to the men who laid down their lives in 
the holy cause of freedom and humanity to keep in 
remembrance their achievements. Let us review 
briefly some of the things which they did. Two 
civilizations confronted each other. The South was 
determined to maintain and extend slavery. Many 
in the North were willing to make any concession 
for peace. There was, however, a small body of 
men who regarded human slavery as a sin, and pro- 

I against it. The Anti-slavery Society, though 
at first small in numbers, was made up of men who 

not wanting* in eloquence and courage. Re- 
wards were offered for their heads by the Legisla- 
tures of some of the slave States. Their meetings 

broken up. Owen Lovejoy and others sealed 
their testimony with their blood. Ministers advo- 
cating anti-slavery sentiments were reproved and 
suspended by their conservative brethren, and at a 
time when we "had no answer but a blow or a blush" 
to the taunts of tyrants in Europe who contrasted 

our creed with our practice, some ministers even in 
the North tried to prove from the Bible that human 



72 Oxi.y a Profession, 

slavery is right. But all the time the spirit of free- 
dom was growing in the North. The public con- 
ience was quickened. What seemed to some 

men of those days a trivial event precipitated the 
conflict that was inevitable. Two representative 

men, one from the North and the other from the 
uth, both nun of dear vision, have declared that 
John Brown's attempt at Harper's Perry convinced 
the States that slavery v led if they re- 

mained parts of the Nation. The enthusiast and his 
handful of su] were quickly put down, but 

h< >p 1 lawn saj g : "There rat I ding, one 

fear, 01 use of aw hi] guilt, awful 

weakness, and awful punishment throughout the 

ah. The}- slept but little before ; they slept I 
after/ 1 The .daw d upon the election of 

Mr. Lincoln a- a pretext for an attempt t<> d 
the Nat rnment. When the struggle began 

in n either nticipated that the war 

would be so long and fiercely contested. The North 
was not ripe for the emancipation of the slaves. I hit 
when the months of died and carnage stretched 

out into and our soldiers were able to win only 

partial victories, one man among our great men (and 
he the greatest Of them all ) had the wisdom top 
ive that Cod would not prosper Our cause while 



Tin. Nation's Memorial. 73 

the wrongs of three millions of slaves cried to heaven 

r redress. I [e had the courage to voice 

the better sentiment of the North, and say, "Let the 

enslaved go free." The Proclamation of Emanci- 
pation by Abraham Lincoln, on the first day of Janu- 
ary, 1863, was the beginning of the end. He fin- 
ished the work that the men who wrote the Decla- 
ration of Independence and the Constitution of the 
United States began, or rather the soldiers who car- 
ried it into effect for him did. It may be urged that 
this was only a war measure. It was more. It was 
a confession that we had been guilty of a great 
national sin, and if the God of battles would give 
success to our arms that we would forever put it 
away. God saw our repentance, and the cause of 
human slavery went down in the tempest and whirl- 
wind of battle. But the war decided more than that 
the Government of our fathers should be perpetu- 
ated and that the enslaved should go free. It made 
labor honorable throughout the length and breadth 
of the land. Before the war the laboring man had to 
find his associates among the slaves. He who soiled 
his hands with toil was regarded as socially unclean. 
But now, how changed ! The South is growing rich 
and prosperous through the labor of men who 
twenty-five years ago dreaded labor more than the} 



74 Only A P 

did the leprosy. The war not only decided for free 
labor, but for free speech as well. Within a score 
and a half of years, in one-third of the States of the 
Union a man took his life in his hands who gave 
utterance to sentiments • those held by the 

people there. This spirit has not altogether dis- 
appeared, but : going. Who will say that we 
can honor too much the men who saved the Nation, 

broke the shackles from the slaves, made labor hon- 

ible, and speech free? But the greatness of our 

soldiers w: tich displayed by what they re- 

frained from d what they did. The vic- 

tor- d then merciful, as they had 

•ved the brave. Not one suffered capital 

punishment for treason. Not one served even a 
long term of imprisonment None were driven into 

exile. 'IV) me that part of the history of our soldiers 
which is i n overlooked, their self -restraint 

in the day of final victory, is no less worthy of eulogy 
than their e and constancy on the battle-field. 

The men who our an: re thinking 

men. In no other armies has there ever been gath- 
ered so much learning and culture. He did not < 

jjerate who said:* "On the march, around the 
camp-fire, in the hospital and prison, and in letters 



* ChuuiK i 



Tin: N mtion's M EMORIAL, 7.S 

to friends at home, these men discussed the i 
at stake, and the results which would follow d 
or victory, with as much statesmanship and prophetic 
force as the representatives in Congress. Of the 
million volunteer soldiers, thousands were fitted by 
culture, ability, and character to be Presidents of the 
United States/ 1 

It will be in vain that we build monuments to the 
good and brave of our own and other generations, 
if we are unwilling to serve our own day and gener- 
ation. 

Certain dangers menace the well-being of the 
Nation. I am not an alarmist, but I regard some 
symptoms of our social and political life with the 
gravest apprehensions. I refer to one — assaults 
upon the rights of the weak. 

A law was enacted by Congress some years ago, 
and is still in force, that no intelligent lover of his 
country can think of without pain and shame. The 
Anti-Chinese bill exposes us to the deserved con- 
tempt of all civilized nations. It strikes a blow at 
the very foundation principle of our Government, 
at our commerce in the East, and at every American 

LOnary in China. This bill represents not the 

best sentiment of this country; it is the Spirit that 

CUtes the Jew in Russia. Creed prejudices and 



76 Oxlv A Pi 

persecution we all feel are unjustifiable: race preju- 
dice and persecution are no more so. 

Such legislation breathes the spirit of the sand- 
lots, and not of the Sermon on the Mount and the 
Declaration of Independence. To teach that the 
"Government of the people, by the people, and for 

the people" is for white men i : ' . is to give the lie 
to everythil rious in our history and traditions. 

Soldiers of the ('.rand Army of the Republic, 1 ap- 
peal t<> yOU, tlie comrades of the men who died to 
make the enslaved free, a- far as in yOU lies, to see 

that they did not die in vain ! 

It much pleasure to greet and welcome 

U here. We are here to honor the defenders of 

untry. Shall we withhold our reverence and 

Him who laid down His life to save the 

rid ? It LS one of the ( >ur order, that 

it teaches the duty of loyalty to an earthl) govern- 
ment. Let US live in loving loyalty to that of God. 

i us not forget the living in honoring those 

who deserve Well of the country. 1 think good men 

of all parti united in the feeling that every 

man who periled his life for the old flag should be 

poverty in his old age, and that in 

the distribution of • >f trust and honor he who 

has served his country on the battle-field should be 



Tin: X \i ION'S M BMORJ \i.. 77 

preferred. It is a pity thai this feeling does not 

n have an expression. A few yeai 
a cit) of Central New York, I witnessed a scene 
that convinced me thai patriotism would not di 
of this land for a generation at least. A regiment 
that had served through the late war, which had been 
enlisted from the towns of that county, had a re- 
union. The streets were lined with pleasure-seekers, 
hut here and there I saw groups of men and women 
who turned pale, and whose eyes filled with tears 
as they looked upon flags bullet-riddled and battle- 
grimed, which had been carried through many a 
iield of strife, and under which a father, son, brother, 
or lover had made his last march. 1 thought as I 
looked upon them, "Xone but lovers of our country 
will be reared in the homes from which these have 
come.'' But the whole Nation is bound by every 
obligation to keep green the memory of the dead 
and guard the land our heroes saved. 

" Prom the lily oflove that uncloses 
In the glow of a festival ki>s, 

the wind that is heavy with ros 
And shrill with the bugles of bliss, 
Let it float o'er the mystical ocean 

That breaks on the kingdom of night — 

r oath of eternal devotion 
To the heroes that died for the right. 



78 Only a Profession. 

They loved as we loved, yet they parted 
From all that man's spirit can pri 

Left woman and child broken-hearted, 
Staring up to the pitiless skies; 

Left the tumult of youth, the sweet guerdon 
Hope promised to conquer from fate — 

e all, for the agonized burden 

death for I ite! 

Ah! grander in doom-stricken gl 

Thou thi it that linger behind; 

d perpetual sfl 

Who saved the Last hope of mankind; 

That languished in night, 

And the dr. all t:. 

' 1 with its Light 

untains we hrr.it: 
'a it; 

the night bear it • 

Our oath that, till manhood shall perish 

A n« 1 b< 
We are trU( that they eh< 

And eternally true I .d." 



V. 
\S HE THINKETH IX HIS HEART. 

"For as he thinketh in his heart so is he/ 9 — Prov. 

win. 7. 

As Matthew Henry would say, "The key to 
the meaning of our text hangs at the door. Who 
desires, let him enter." 

This is the picture that Solomon places before 
V man has made a feast. So pressing are his 
invitations — so warm his welcome, so liberal and 
choice the viands he has prepared for his guests — 
that they and we think, "Here is large-hearted hos- 
pitality. " But the wise man bids us look beneath 
the smiles on the face, and behind the honeyed words 
on the lips of the maker of the feast, to his thoughts, 
and. lo ! we see a scheming miser. He grudges 
every morsel those around his table eat, and every 
dr<»p they drink. If his guests knew his feelings 
towards them and his designs upon them, they would 
[] from the presence of this host who seems a 
generous friend, but who in fact seeks to put them 

79 



So Only a Profession. 

under obligations he will never deem discharged, 
though they repay them a thousand times and fold. 
He only keeps an account of what he has done for 
others — never what they have done for him ; hence 
all men with whom he comes in contact are perpet- 
ual debtors to him I In short, Solomon reminds 

that a man can not be judged I litary utter- 

ano 'i. We mu . the inmost thinking 

that is behind the word and deed, if we would be 
just to the r. The thoughts of a man 

ermine his character, his OOnduct, and ultimately 
:iy. 

him mentally by his thoughts. 
If they are habitually trivial, he : lotlS. 

:ire him morally by his thoughts. 
If they are habitually wanting in loyalty to G 

and an, be i live the white life. 

What is I inant thought, aim, and desire? 

IK- may have Lining — such perseverance 

thai urage him, do 

dan [aunt him, but if he lac 

one thing he will never I in attainment 

achievement. I . Paul give us the ultimate 

test of char k with the tongu 

men and of angels, and have not luve, I am I 
me as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And 



As 1 1% Th i N - m:ih in 1 1 is I h; akt. 

though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand 
all mysteries, and all knowledge: and though 1 have 
all faith, so thai 1 could remove mountains, and 
have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow 
all n to feed the poor, and though I give my 

body to be bnmed. and have not love, it profiteth me 
hing." 

God is not deceived concerning' loveless deed-, 
and men at last are not. God knoweth our thoughts ; 
therefore His apprizement of us is not the estimate 

others put upon US, or that we put upon ourselves, 
lie weigheth our deeds, because He has already 

weighed our thoughts. 

" Xo action in itself is small, 

None great though earth it fill ; 
But that is small that seeks its own, 
And great which seeks God's will." 

The law, that the thoughts of a people determine 
what they are and do, is written in large script in 
the history and condition of nations. 

What makes the difference between England and 
China in progress and power? The thoughts of 
their people concerning God. Climate, language, 
race do not explain it. 

What constitutes the superiority of the United 
States over India? A superior religion, a truer, 

purer, higher conception of God. 

6 



82 Only a Profession. 

The Puritan and Parisian both loved civil lib- 
erty intensely. But the Puritan's creed was "that 
the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy 
Him forever." The Parisian's creed was, "Pet us 
eat, drink, and be merry, f«>r to-morrow we die." 
The Puritan, with such a creed, had a passion for 
righteousness and truth. He made the nation, the 

Church, the family, society sweet and pure, because 
he anchored them I Everything the Parisian 

founded was unstable, for it was built on passing 
sentiments — not a- in the i the Puritan, upon 

eternal principle 

Macaulay shows that one type of Christianity, on 
whatever continent found, is alv panied 

by a higher civilization— a larger civil and religious 
liberty, purer i r wraith and intel- 

lectual activity than another type. The type of 
Christianity that denies the Bible to the common 
pe< 'pk- must al tting fi \t 

than the type which gives the Bible to every man 

and exlmrts him to study and obey it. Horace 

Greeley declares, "It is impossible to mentally or 
dally enslave a Bible-reading people. The prin- 
ciples "f the Bible are the groundwork of human 

freedom." 

But let us look at this law in detail. 



Hi Tn i \ ki.ni in His 1 1 1: \i<r. 83 

I. What a man thinks in his heart of God fur- 
nishes an index t<> his character and conduct The 
Psalmist thus describes the wicked man: "The 
wicked through the pride of his countenance will 
not seek afar God. God is not in all his thoughts." 
Job describes the wicked thus: "Therefore the) 
unto God: Depart from us, for we desire not the 
knowledge of Thy ways. Who is the Almighty 
that we should serve Him? and what profit should 
we have if we pray unto Him?" 

Some one has said : "The Atheist says, 'No God ;' 
the Theist, 'A God/ The Christian, 'My God/" 
These three thoughts of God produce conduct and 
character entirely unlike. His thought of God for 
the sincere Christian breaks the enchantment and 
spell of temptation. Well does Faber sing: 

" O ! how the thought of God attracts 
And draws the heart from earth, 
And sickens it of passing shows, 
And dissipating mirth ! 

'T is not enough to save our souls, 

To shun the eternal fires; 
The thought of God will rouse the heart 

To more sublime desires. 

God only is the creature's home. 

Though rough and straight the road; 

Yet, nothing less can satisfy 
The love that longs for God. 



84 Only a PROFESSION. 

O ! utter but the name of God 

Down in your heart of hearts, 
And see how from the world at once 

All tempting light departs." 

The courage to brave danger and defy wrong 

comes from a steadfast eonviction. not only that God 
is, but that "He is a rewarder of all who diligently 
seek" and serve Him, 

"The land that was the cradle of Christianity 
WOUld have proved its coffin," if the adherents of 

Christianity had not felt their obligation to and de- 
pendence up 

After our I. surrection and ascension, 

when Peter and John had startled all Jerusalem with 
their miracles and preaching, "the rulers commanded 

them i. ich in the name of 

Jesus/ 1 ;md John answered and said 

unto them: Whether it he right in the sight of God 
t<> hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. 
n not but speak the things we hat 

and heard." "So when they had further threatened 
them, they let them go. And being let go, they 

went into their own company, and reported all that 

the chief priests and rider- had -aid unto them. And 

when the}' heard that, they lifted n]> their voice to 

l with aid. Ami now, Lord, 

behold their threatening ; and -rant unto Thy scrv- 



i! m.i. i ii i \ His I Ii:.\ut. 85 

ants thai with all boldness they may speak Thy 
Word, by stretching forth Thy hand to heal; and 

that signs ami wonders may he dour by the name 

the Holy Child JeSUS." "And when they had 

prayed, the place was shaken where they were as- 
sembled together; and they were all filled with the 

Holy Ghost, and they snake the Word of God witli 
boldness." 

I heard the foremost prophet of doubt and unbe- 
lief in our age arraign the Church. For two hours 
he in turn ridiculed and denounced. Finally he de- 
scribed the Inquisition. He said: "If they had put 
thumbscrews on me I would have said, Gentlemen, 
I will believe that there is one God or a hundred 
just as you say; but please do not turn those things 
in." When the laugh had subsided that this sally 
provoked, he became serious and continued: "But I 
want to say that all the progress of the world has 
been made because there have been men and women 
who have died rather than play Judas Iscariot to 
their convictions. We are not naked savages danc- 
ing round a camp-fire in the forest to-night, because 
some men and women have been ready to die for 
what they thought was right." When Colonel Inger- 
I] made that admission, he gave away the cause of 
infidelity. Well ha- a vigorous English writer writ- 



86 Only a Profession. 

ten: "Infidelity has no very extended marytr roll. 
Infidels generally write their testimony in a darker 

fluid than their blood." 

In that resplendent roll of the world's great men 

and great d< und in the eleventh ehapter of 

Hebrews, we learn what made these men so mighty, 

5t Paul goes back of what they wrought, to the 

source of their greatness, when he says: "Who. 

through faith, subdued kingdoms, wrought right- 

. obtained piXMl pped the mouths of 

; quenched the violence Of tire, escaped the 

of tl 3 were made strong, 

d valiant in light, turned to flight the armies of 

the alien.-." 

The patience I is b ini of faith 

in the :i and 1< 1 )« fclbt may point to 

right' g clothed ill id wickedness robed 

in purple and fine linen; t< > error received and truth 

rejected; t<> un : ned and right crucified, and 

mockingly ask, "Where is now thy Cod:" I hit 

faith with radiant face repli 

" If WC could push ajar the f life 

And stand within and all Cod's working see, 
We OOQld interpret all this doubt and strife, 
And for each UT mid find a key! 

Hut not Then be content, poor heart ! 

I'a plans, like lilies pure and white, unfold. 
Wc must not tear the close-shut Le&Vefl apart — 
Time will reveal the eah Id. 



ill Thinketh i v - His He \. 87 

And If through patient toil we reach the land 
Where tired feet, with Bandala loosed, may rest, 

Where we can clearly Bee and understand, 
I think that we will Bay, ' God knew the beat' " 

J. What a man thinks, and as ;i man thinks <>i 
Christ in his Ik-art, so is he. This is the crncial test 

of all. One of our hymns says: 

u Ye can not be right in the rest 

Unless ye think rightly of Him." 

He is the touchstone of the hearts of the children 
of men. His questions were always of permanent 
value. 

"For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain 
the whole world and lose his own soul? Or, what 
shall a man give in exchange for his soul ?" Is 
not that one of the living questions of our day? 
If Christ were to ask us a question that would en- 
able us to decide whether we are prepared to work 
for Him and to witness for Him, would it not be 
tliat one, or series of questions with which He tested 
the repentant Peter, "Lovest thou Me?" Is there 
a more pertinent one for this age of doubt than the 
last one lie proposed at the close of Tlis public min- 
istry, "What think ye of Christ?" Before even that 
other question, "What will you do with Christ?" 
you must meet this one, "What think ye of Christ?" 



88 Only a PROFESSION, 

Your attitude toward every doctrine of Christianity 
will be affected by what you think of Him. Suppose 
we were to challenge Him with the inquiry that the 
priests and Levites made of John Baptist, "Who art 
Thou?" that we may give an answer to them that 
sent us: "What s Thou of Thyself?" We 

have His reply, "Before Abraham was. I AM." "I 
am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; no man 
cometh unto the Father but by Me." "I am the 
Resurrection and the Life; he that believeth on Me, 

though he were dead, yel shall he live; and who 

ever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die." 
"The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all 

things into His hand." "lie that believeth on the 
:i hath eternal life; but he that obeyeth not the 

but the wrath i if I '.. >d abideth 

on him." Tin- Scriptures represent Christ as "the 
Kt< :i. the revel [ I iod, the First Born 

from the dead; the Image of the Invisible God; the 

Cn all things; th( r and Example of 

the WOrld, and the final Judge <>f all men." 

Will any thoughtful man say it Can be a matter 
of small import to him what he in his heart thinks 
of Jesus Christ; that whether a man adopts 

Christ's standard of manhood. Christ's rule of con- 
duct, Christ's measure and manner of attaining sue- 



As He Thinketh in His H 89 

. will n<>t affect his own value to tin- world and 

his d< stiny ultimately ? 

3, What you think of the Bible, as you think of 

it in your heart, so are y< >n ? Is it the w< irk of men's 
heads and hands? or, is it the mes [ God to 

a benighted and perishing world, groping after light, 

reaching out for help and salvation? There is not 
item of doubt or unbelief that belittles or rejects 

the claims of jesns that docs not begin by discredit- 
ing some part, or rejecting the Bible as a whole. 
Accept the Bible as the true Word of God, and one 
ally must accept Jesus as the Son of God — 
God's best and greatest gift to a lost and perishing- 
world. He wdio seeks to know the will of God, that 
he may do it, will soon think with David : "The law 
of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul ; the testi- 
mony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; 
statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart ; 
the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening 
the eyes ; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for- 
ever; the judgments of the Lord are true and right- 
eous altogether ; more to be desired are they than 
gold, yea, than much fine gold ; sweeter also than 
honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is 
Thy servant warned ; and in keeping of them there 
great reward/ 1 



90 Oxi.v a Profession. 

A year ago the woman who for more than a 
score of years had made my home the brightest and 
happiest spot on eartli for me, was in great pain and 
weakness. W'e knew, she knew, that it was her last 
Sabbath on the earth. Her faith was undimmed and 
unshaken for a moment. The Bible that as a little 
child she had learned at her mother's knee sustained 
and comforted her. The promises she repeated 

again an she never doubted, were the "yea" 

and "amen" of her Heavenly Father. 

rch the Scriptures, for in 
them ye think ye hi I nal life, and they are they 

which testify of Me." That is what lie thought of 

the Scriptur 

4. As a man thinketh in his heart concerning 

sin, SO is he. 

But I am asked, "What is sin?" An old-fash- 

ioned definition is, "Sin is any want of conformity 

unto or trai ion of the law - Solomon 

lares that "Fools make a n in." If in my 

thinking ard sin, even when gilded and popular, 

a trifle, 1 am in serious peril myself, and am a men- 
:y. 
When we reflect that .sin is rebellion against God, 
that it- leath, we will not regard it as a 

trifle. 



As 1 1 1: Thinketh in His 1 1 gar?. 91 

Dr. Charles Wadsworth represents a lad saying 
to his father, "Whal is gunpowder?" And the 
answer is, "Gunpowder is a compound of niter, 
sulphur, and charcoal/' fl Lee me see it," he 
And tlk father exhibits a little black shining dust f 

air and odorless as tiny flower-seed. And the 
child says, "1 see nothing in all this to be afraid 
of," or "Why should the laws forbid you to manu- 
facture it anywhere, and keep it on sale always? 
Why may I not have it to play with?" So the 
parent takes the child out to a mountain side where 
men are removing great masses of rock. They put 
a small measure of this odorless and innocent dust 
into the cleft of a cavern and apply a spark of fire, 
and, lo ! the whole mountain rocks as with an earth- 
quake. And the air is filled with flying fragments 
of quarry and forest. And the father says, "That is 
gunpowder." And now the child understands it, 
and is ever afterward in fear of it. 

Dr. C. S. Robinson tells us that once he was 
taking breakfast in a great institution in Syria 
erected by American benevolence. On one side of 
him sat the physician-superintendent; on the other 
side of him was Bishop Kingsley of our Church, the 
very picture of health. Dr. Robinson asked the 
superintendent, "Tell me, Doctor, what is Syrian 



92 Only a Professi- 

fever?" Before he could reply. Dr. Robinson was 
summoned to join an excursion that would take four 
or five hours to make. When Dr. Robinson returned 
he at once noticed that a profound gloom had set- 
tled on all that he had left SO cheerful and happy. 
The superintendent in silence took him by the arm 
I led him to the morgue, and pointing to a body 
so swollen and blackened that he could not believe 
he bad ■ ely : "That 

Syrian fever. Bishop K , that you left five 

hour ' n l M 

I all the and tears and pain 

and WOC in the world. It has digged and filled all 
the in the world. It nailed the Son of God 

to the CT 38. '"I; I : ::- rj i QC of the shining spirits 
before the throne, and, lol he withered into a devil I" 

In the ' another: "Sin is a diseas 

the soul ! A paralysis that weaken- ! A leprosy that 
lutes I A plague that tortures! A pestilence that 

s !"' 
Will a man who ly thinks that he can 

:ely sin, make a mock of sin, be saved from the 

I his evil thinking and doing, be saved 
by his sincerity ? 

. "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, 
but the end thereof are the wavs of death." 



As He Th i \ m. i ii km His Heai 93 

Whatever we may think about it, "Sin, when it 

is finished, bringeth forth death/ 1 

Any Church that does not proclaim God's esti- 
sin, and God's remedy for sin, can not have 
a large share in the world's salvation. 

5. As a man thinketh in his heart about others, 
SO is he. The had man is quick to think evil and 
slow to think good of his neighbors. The dish 
man thinks honesty has fled from the place where 
men traffic and trade. He will tell you that "all 
men have their price. " 

The man whose thoughts are corrupt and whose 
touch is pollution, does not have a very exalted opin- 
ion of any woman. It is not a spirit of retaliation, 
but instinct that causes the world to regard with dis- 
trust and suspicion the man who is prone to think 
evil of others. It is a sign of something worse than 
mediocrity in one to have only detraction for the 
competitor who, for the time being, has outstripped 
him. 

6. As a man thinks of himself, so is he. St. Paul 
reminds us, "For if a man think himself to be some- 
thing when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself." 
An overestimate of one's worth and merit and ahil- 

- not uncommon. Such an estimate is a weak- 
and peril. So an underestimate may be a snare. 



94 Only a PROFESSION, 

I recently read the following: "There are only two 
rules for good manners. One is always to think of 
others; the other is never to think of yourself." 
'*' Uher men labored, and we are entered into their 

labors/ 1 We can never pay our debt to the past 

A friend of mine, with a company of gtU 

found himself on a >treet-car without a penny to pay 

the (ares. All the gentlemen of the company in 
changing to evening dress had left their pocket- 
books at home. A stranger stepped forward and 

Settled with the conductor. When they asked his 
address so that they could reimburse him, he replied: 

w ] haw found myself more than once in the predica- 
ment you are in, and have had my fare paid. You 

will find some one who has forgotten his pocket- 

book ; just pa— it along to him." 1 think of some 

who t< land with the white-robed. They 

blessed me with their love. They guided and 
guarded me, and encouraged and helped me. I nei 

think of them hut my heart gTOWS warm. I can 

never repay them for what they did for me; hut 
/ can pass it along to oik 

Ar< "What can I get out of the 

world? It owes me honor and ease and flattery and 
place." While these are your thoughts it will never 
he much indebted to you. JJut if you are asking. 



As I 1 1: Tim \ ki. i ii i \ His I I E \RT. 

"What can 1 give to the world?" I owe it a work 
ami a duty. I congratulate those who love their 
fellows, that in you they are to find helpers. Spur- 
geon says, "As you learn, teach; as you get, ( 
as y< >u receive", distribute." 

As you think (^i God, Jesus Christ, the Bible, 
sin, others, and yourself, you arc. These thoughts 
will constitute your philosophy of and plan of life. 

Last summer in my journeyings I came near the 

grave of one of America's gifted daughters, and as 

I as gifted. One of her poems has given us the 

thoughts that inspired that beautiful, helpful life. 

She wrote : 

" If I can live 
To make some pale face brighter and to give 
A second luster to some tear-dimmed eye, 

Or e'en impart 
Due throb of comfort to an aching heart, 
Or cheer some way-worn soul in passing by ; 

If I can lend 
A strong hand to the fallen, or defend 
The right against a single envious strain, — 

My life though bare 
Perhaps of much that seemeth dear and fair 
To us on earth, will not have been in vain. 

The purest joy, 

Most near to heaven, far from earth's alloy, 
N bidding clouds give way to sun and shine. 



96 Only A PROFESSION. 

And \ will be well 
If on that day of days the angels tell 
Of rne : w vShe did her best for one of thine." 

In the light of this law we have been considering, 
we find that what we have been thinking in our 
hearts, we arc We are the result of all our thoughts. 
What we are thinking, we shaH J e. We have been 

wing better or ur thinking has been 

good or evil. Do you doubt that a thought that has 
not incarnated itself yet in action has left its im- 

I 1 illumined by love and hope 

that I have had no difficulty in believing that the 
council long ago, looking steadfastly at St Stephen, 
saw his - it had been tl >f an angel. I 

have, oil the other I - so disfigured with 

lieved the d 
trine that evil spirit take up their abode 

in men. I be glorified or brutalized by 

the thoughts back of them, who can doubt that the 

sensitive soul em far njore quickly 

than the body? 

What a large part in the formation of char- 
acter the imagination and memory play! Then 

much more day dreaming than night dreaming. The 
imagination exettS Mich an influence, because it con- 



As I fa Tin N ki.i ii i \ I I RT, 97 

rtantly, as well as powerfully, appeals to us. Albert 
Barn* mdud that would destroy is checked 

by the restraints of social life; and words that would 
race arc checked by regard to character and 
reputation. But there are no such restraints in an 
evil heart. Its workings may be indulged in the 
nee of others, no matter how pure, no matter 
holy. And the process of death may be going 
on in the soul, in the society of the most lovely and 
holy, and near the very altars and in the temples of 
the holy God." Through the imagination and fancy 
man}' dangerous doctrines are wildly accepted, be- 
cause poetry and romance have given them wings. 
To which class of memories do we submit ourselves ? 
Those that defile and degrade, or those that purify 
and ennoble? Through the memory one sinful in- 
dulgence may repeat itself, until we lose all sense 
of uprightness or desire for holiness. 

" Our dreams are but mirrors of ourselves : 
We shape in thought what soon we dress in deeds ; 
And what we daily do within the heart, 
We grow to be." 

- a man thinks in his heart, so he will speak 
and act. For, "Out of the abundance of the heart 
the mouth speaketh." 

A man has no greater gift to make the workl 



98 Only a PROFESSION, 

than a good thought. By those society has been 
elevated and purified. To change a man morally 
and spiritually, his thoughts must be changed. "Let 
the wicked forsake his ways, and the unrighteous 
man his thoughts: and let him turn unto the Lord, 
and lie will have mercy upon him; and our God, 

for lie will abundantly pardon." And when through 
the washing of regeneration and renewing of the 

II' ' St a man's heart is changed, yet it remains 

for him to work out his salvation by guarding and 

abating hi- thoughts; welcoming the good and 

finding a place for them in his heart, and resisting 
and rejecting the evil. lf WhatSOever things are true, 

whatsoever things are honest] whatsoever things are 
ju.st, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever thii 

are 1< »vely, wh, I [ gi •« id report : if 

there be any virtue and praise, think on these thing 

Three great branches of the Christian Church 

never come to cur Lord's table without offering the 
following prayer, which I now voice for you and 

myself: 

"Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, 

all known, and from whom no E are 

hid, cleanse the thoughts of Our hearts by the inspi- 
ration of Thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly 
love Thee and worthily magnify Thy Holy Name, 
through Jesus Christ, our Lord." 



VI. 

WHAT MAKES A NATION GREAT? 

'hteousness exalteth a nation" — Prov, xiii, 34. 

To SPEND this half-hour in becoming familiar 
with the claims of our country and God, that we 
may be better able to render to Caesar the things 
that are Caesar's and to God the things that are 
God's, surely must be lawful. Happily piety and 
patriotism do not conflict in their claims. As some 
one has said,* "It is a God-fearing piety that makes 
a man the best subject of a good government, and 
the most formidable enemy to a bad one. Animated 
by its lofty hopes, sustained by its enduring spirit, 
a true Christian is not the man to sell his liberties 
for a dishonorable peace nor his birthright for a 
mess of pottage." There have been patriots who 
have not been pious men, but religious men have 
ever proved the truest patriots. There is no time 
<-r place too sacred to enforce the lessons of patriot- 

* Guthrie. 

99 



ioo Only a Profession. 

ism. That is a false Christianity that affects indif- 
ference to the duties of citizenship. The family and 
Church are divine institutions. So is the State. 
Where any one of these three declines or languishes, 
the prosperity and happilM - j are hindered. 

What is the secret of national greatness and 
permaneno n says, "Rights >s exalt- 

eth a nation." What are we to understand by fre 
rd right SS, which the wise man uses in the 

verse ] have just quoted? It means sincere piety 
and high morality. Sin, the trans God's 

law, is declared to he the shame of any people; 

hteousness, the keeping l's law— the oppo- 

affirmed, exalteth a nation, pro- 
its honor, and tends t< > its prosperity, Hi- 
ll technical terms, my text means that the 

true- glorj nation, urity, is the high 

morality and simple piety of the people as reflected 

in its laws and customs and practic d ordained 

and men organized States to c the well-being 

protect the good and punish and reform 
the evil. An earthly government to meet the- hivine 

ideal must he administered i promote the 

well-being of its subjects, physically, intellectually! 

morally, and spiritually. No one will have the hardi- 
hood to dispute, but he is liable to explain away my 



What M \ki;> a \ a in >\ ( \\<\ i i 

text until it becomes meaningless, and to feel if he 

not say with the p< >et : 

" No graven image may be worshiped, 
Save in the currency ; 

Thou sh.ilt not kill, hut need not Btrive 
Officiously to keep alive ; 

Thou shall not covet, but tradition 

Approves all forms of competition." 

My fear is not that as a people we will contra- 
dict with our lips my text, but contradict it with our 
lives ; believe in our hearts that the price to be paid 
for righteousness in our social or civil affairs is too 
high. 

Men looking at the brief triumph of wickedness 
may come to believe that dishonesty and injustice 
can permanently succeed ; beholding the tardy re- 
ward of a righteous man or the victory of a right- 
eous cause delayed may fall into despair and moan: 

" Careless seems the great Omniscient, history's pages but 
record 
One death struggle in the darkness 'twixt old systems 
and the Word." 

" Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the 
throne ;" 

But faith sings : 

u Yet that BCafibld sways the future, and behind the dim 
unknown 
Standeth God within the shadows keeping watch above 
His own." 



102 Only a Professiox. 

Profane as well as -acred history proves: 

u They never fail who die 
In a great cause: the block may soak their gore; 
Their heads may sodden in the sun ; their limbs 
Be strung to city gates and castle walls, — 
But still their Spirits walk abroad. Tho 1 years 

-pse, and others share BS dark a doom, 
They bat augment the deep and sweeping thoughts 
Which o v e r po we r all others, and conduct 
The world at last to freedom." 

There is nothing we can substitute for righteous- 
ness without tarnishing the fame and threatening the 
stability of the State. Some would measure a na- 
tion's greatness and glory by the gold it lias accumu- 
lated, but this may he the w; iniquity. The 
wealthy nations of antiquity were not the long- 
h\a Truth and freedom OWC most, not to 
rich, but poor nations, h is the duty of a govern- 
ment to promote the material prosperity of its sub- 
jects, to encourage commerce, mining, agriculture, 
and manuf The lawmaking bodies of the 
State and Republic are not suffered to forget the 

kteiial interests of the Commonwealth ami Nation. 

Every industry has its representatives at Albany and 

Washington to promote and protect it. Many sup- 
pose that wealth, no matter how gotten or tised, 
means prosperity. If I were to announce, "Wealth 
exaltcth a nation," I WOtlld have no difficulty in get- 



W ii \ r M AKES \ X \ i [< »\ I tUM \ t ? I03 

ting a larger number than ever assembled in any 
church in our city to voice their creed: "All this 
do \\c most steadfastly believe/ 1 But wraith for 
the individual or nation, dishonestly gotten or self- 
ishly used, is the precursor of poverty and ruin. 

Nations were in former times intoxicated with mili- 
tary ambitions. Their supreme struggle is for corn- 
rial advantage now. Rome sent her eagles of 

conquest, their talons dripping with blood, to every 
known country. France and England have sought 
to plant their flags on every shore. But nations are 
now more anxious for commercial gain than for mili- 
tary glory. The world has never seen another na- 
tion that in a hundred years has had such material 
growth. Xot long ago three men met in a little 
room in Xew York City who had double the wealth 
that the millions who cast off the yoke of Great 
Britain had. Mr. Rockefeller probably has three 
times the wealth that all the Baptists of the world 
had half a century ago. Foreign statisticians assert 
that the United States is the richest Nation that the 
sun ever shone on. The great fortunes of the no- 
bility of the Old World are far surpassed here by 
• accumulated within the lifetime of a man. We 
:i for thanksgiving for the riches that 
God has poured out on our country, but we must 



104 Only a Pi 

remember that they arc not our security or glory. 
How many examples does history furnish of nations 
that have perished through the corruptions that have 
been engendered by wealth! Again, intellect alone 
not exalt a nation. The intellectual growth of 
the nation has not been less than its growth in 
riches. Think of the triumphs of mind over matter 
in our age. ( )f the twenty great inventions since the 
dawn of human history, thirteen ' to the cen- 

tury that dosed a short time since. "Steam ha- been 

tamed. It the continent carrying the 

I ppulati It tramples the riotous 

wa . floor, and makes 

.it high [ travel and enmmer 

untains are bri 1. rivers crossed, 

•i knit together as with literal iron 

bands." The telegraph sti res across the 

linent and under the ocean. Steam and elec- 
tricity have made all pa ; neighbS 
Recent times have wit : the gi 

. which are Only thought I pping- 

new sue No field of research is 

beii ling the phys- 

ical hist E the v it is written on the 

es of the earth's ire dig- 

he ruins of buried and long-forgotten 



What M \ki - \ X \ i ION ( »R] 

tides For information concerning the men and women 

who once lived there. We are ever and anon send- 

xpeditions to find oul the secrets of the frozen 

North or of the Dark Continent, Because we know 

more than our Fathers does not prove that we are 
better or greater than they. Under the brain of 
genius may beat a cruel, selfish heart. It was said 

of one that "he was at once the wisest and meanest 

of men." Of another that "he would be the greatest 
constitutional lawyer of the world if he were not one 
of the greatest villains." Greece and Rome were 
never more cultured in literature and art than when 
they appalled even the pagan nations that surrounded 
them by their corruptions. "The tree of knowdedge 
may be the tree of death as well as the tree of life." 

Train a man's body and mind alone, and you 
have only a splendid animal. Educate his head and 
neglect his heart, and you have produced a danger- 
ous villain. There may be great intellectual power 
where there is neither loyalty to truth, love for man, 
or reverence for God. 

Again, mere numbers do not make a nation great ; 
yet the boastings that followed the reading of our 
last census reports .showed that some thought that 
our progre>> in all that is good and desirable can 
be measured by our growth in numbers. 1 am some- 



106 Only a Profession. 

times appalled at our increase in population when 
I remember the character of much of that increase. 
Nearly a million people from foreign lands sought 
homes in this country last year. In fifty years we 
will have a population of over oik* hundred and fifty 
millions. That is a conservative estimate. One 
authority says at the dose of the present century 

will have a population of over three hundred and 
fifty millioi pulation greater than Europe and 

iatic Russia. Before the century is fifty years 

old there will he half a score of cities larger than the 
New York of to-day, while 00 and around Man- 
hattan Island, at the BOUthern extremity of Lake 

Michigan, and at the Golden Gate looking (nit upon 

a that "with its solemn ] ds the arteries 

nation of the world," will be three 

|( m now IS. Addition, if it is 
not of the right kind, is only adulteration. If the 
nation is not botltt . sincere piety and 

a l< >m with areas so vast and inten 

conflicting it will perish before the end of the 
present century. He spake truly who said, "The 
Christianity of Americ ave herself must save 

the world." Not OUT numhers, but the lofty char- 

•f our people, their being inspired by great 

ambitions and ideals, will make the nation great. 



Wiia r M \ ki < \ Nation I vreai ? 

Ii is not wealth or intellect or numbers that exalteth 
a nation, but the right use of its possessions and 

"Righteousness exalteth a nation/ 1 This is 
to be a necessity when we reflect that He who git- 

teth Upon the throne of the Universe is a power that 
maketh for righteousness, 

The individual sinner may prosper in the things 
of this world and die apparently unpunished, but for 

him awaits the solemn exposures and awards of the 
day when God shall judge the secrets of men's 
hearts by Christ Jesus. Even David was perplexed 
when he saw the prosperity of the wicked, and he 
not undeceived till he went to the house of the 
Lord ; then understood he their end. But for nations 
there is no judgment-day beyond this world. God 
vindicates His justice by their punishment when they 
sin, and when they refuse to repent by their over- 
throw. How came the great nations of the past to 
perish? Their sins brought them low. Their sins 
were not the same. The sin of one nation was pride, 
of another intemperance, of another oppression of 
the poor. Xo nation was so rich or cultured or 
erful that its sins were not overtaken by the 
judgment- of God. Egypt, fearing the rapid in- 
crease of her poor slaves, cast the male children of 



108 Only a Profession. 

the Israelites into the Nile, When Pharaoh and his 
hosts perished in the waters of the Red Sea, did it 
not appear that the vengeance of the Most High 
had been only slumbering to give Egypt time for 
repentance? Put I need not go to other times and 
lands fur illustrations that God punishes national 
sins. 

This Nation, that had made the ablest, noblest 
gliment for :' ever written by a people and 

waged an heroic war g years till 

their valor was rewarded I refused to give 

hat they demanded for themselves. Their 

Declaration of Independence showed Lhat they did 
norantly. The unrequited t * > i 1 of the un- 
happy blacks they counted too profitable to be given 
up. Condemned by the noble example of England, 

who freed her slaves, and condemned by their own 

utterance^ at the time, they threw off the yoke of 
Great Britain, they held to their sin and attempted to 
justify it. Xew York City, bound by close com- 
mercial ties to the South, was hardly less prosUw 

than South Carolina. Slavery was not merely the 

sin of a section; it was a national sin. We are I 
minded by thinker that ten year- before the 

ancipati clamation there were four class 

in this country in their attitude toward this national 



What Makes a Nation Grj u >g 

>;n. One class defended the system because it was 
profitable. Another class did not want to see it 

disturbed because it would make trouble. They were 
for peace at any price. Then still another class 
admitting that slavery was wrong said it was too 
strong to be overthrown. The fourth class in 

that not less lor the sake of the Nation than for 
tin ^e in bonds the enslaved must go free. The first 
three classes seem to have forgotten God. Those 
who were for the system of human slavery because 
there was "money in it" saw all the gains of op- 
ion lost in a bloody and costly war. Having 
poured out their blood and their gold like water 
the}' failed. Those who were for peace at any price 
saw this land "plowed by cannon, harrowed by 
lightning, and planted with the bodies of their noblest 
sons." Those who insisted that the evil was too 
strong to be resisted and had washed their hands 
in invisible water because they could not help — they 
were not slave owners — and at the same time did 
nothing to aid those who were trying to quicken 
the public conscience, found that when God came in 
judgment they could not escape their part of the 
punishment. Those who had protested against the 
great national sin and had been counted a> fools and 
fanatics for so doing, were vindicated by the Provi- 



no Only a Profession. 

dence of God and the logic of events ! Will we 
profit by that lesson, or must we learn again that the 
revenues of wickedness in the end impoverish and 
ruin ? I doubt not we often ask, "Is it well with our 
1< >ved land ? What is to be her future ?" By my text 

can determine her present condition and predict 
her future. Every departure from the law of God 
IS a departure from the path of honor and safety. 
The cl: nation, like those of an individual, 

determine its character, determine whether it is right- 
is or unrighteous, and its choices determine its 
:iny. In th< r* thinking men Rus ep- 

humiliatio: that she has hem outfought 

en land and sea, but that she made solemn 
pK the integrity of China, which 

she never meant to keep. Her persecutions of the 

lews humiliates her mere in the Bight of good nun, 

than her loss of Port Arthur. Godliness is profitable 

for the nation as well as the individual. Ihirke v. 

lit when he said, "What is morally wrong can 
never be politically right." \V1. not recall 

ll's w< '• 

"Once to every man ami nation comes the moment to rie- 

In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, fof "1 or 

Kvil si<le ; 

new Mfftfflfhj offering each the 

an or blight, 



What MAKES A X.\ i ION ( »RJ I I I 

Parts the goats npon the Left hand and the iheep upon 

the right ; 
And the choice goes by forever, 'twixt that Darkness and 

th.it Light" 

An unjust law enforced] or a good one un- 
enforced, is an offense in the sight of God. In our 

land, whore the laws SO quickly reflect ami respond 

to the will of the majority, unjust laws, or the lax 
enforcement of good ones, become the sins of those 
who choose the law makers and law executors. It 

is a sin to keep unrighteous laws on our statute 
books. It is a sin not to do all we can to enforce 
righteous ones. It is not enough to have good laws. 
Some one has said: "I would prefer to have Lucifer 
make the laws and Gabriel enforce them, than have 
Gabriel make the laws and Lucifer enforce them/' 
Let us look at some of the national sins that are a 
menace to the well-being of the Republic. 

I. First in order and importance is the liquor- 
traffic. Here is the prolific mother of political cor- 
ruption, pauperism, and crime. More men fall vic- 
tims every year to strong drink than were slain in 
the fiercest battle of the Civil War. It costs more to 
support this traffic than it did to save the Nation. 

. long will the people submit to pay such a tribute 
of treasure, tears, and blood? When will deliverance 
come? It will come as soon as all professed Chris- 



ii2 Only a Profession. 

tians are as consistent and earnest in their opposition 
to this evil as its ad. are in stipport of it. 

When the faith and works of the evangelical 
Churches of the United States says to this mountain 
that is crushing out piety and patriotism, "Be thou 

removed and cast into yonder Sea," it -hall he done! 
:. The bitterness of party spirit is a menace to 
riotism. Parties are necessary, but the public 

good should n LCIlficed <>n the altar ^i party. 

An eminent "practical politician" of OUT Common- 

: "If any man has a 

conscience, let hie ar, I do not care 

how much the Sunday-school members of our party 
'squeal 1 as long as the) do not 'kick.' As long as 
politicians fed that men will only protest, they 

will bad men and 1 \ upon their party, 

[f we \ had men because the}- have the party 

tnination, and support evil measures because our 
party a 9 them, there can be no reform. Let 

tis seek th< ur country more than the sue- 

SS of our patty. I. dopt Stunner's motto, 

"\\hei\- principle is, there is my party." 

3, Vote buying and selling. The most conserv- 
ative admit that this is a widespread and growing 
evil. Men sell for a few what cost the life- 

blood of hep es. The man who sells his vote should 



Wiiai M UCES V Xai [i [13 

be forever deprived of what he so lightly esteems, 
and the man who buys votes, instead of being sent 
to AJban) or Washington, ought to be sent to 
Auburn or Sing Sing. Judge Tourgee has said: 
"To buy ballots is a worse crime than murder, [f 
you kill, it is but one man. It you kill the life of 
the Nation, eighty millions of the people and their 
children must suffer wrong." 

4. Sabbath desecration. Listen to De Tocque- 
ville's impressive words : "Despotism may govern 
without faith, but liberty can not. God's Church, 
God's Book, and God's Day are the three pillars of 
American society. Without them it must go the way 
of all flesh; and God will raise up some other nation 
or continent to carry on His designs. But with them 
it will continue to prosper, notwithstanding all hin- 
drances from without and within." We expect that 
saloon-keepers and infidels will seek to overthrow 
the Lord's-day. Would that all Christians were 
blameless in this matter! The late Dwight Moody 
said, "When Sunday goes the Church goes; and 
when the Church goes the Republic goes!" To 
change Sunday from a holy day to a holiday means 
the speedy triumph of wickedness. Dr. J. O. Peck 
has shown most conclusively that the Lord's-day 
as a holy day is a necessity for all forms of social 
8 



ii4 Only a Profession, 

regeneration. London, the commercial and financial 
heart of the world, keeps its post-office closed on 
the Lord's-day, but many oi the business men of our 

provincial cities and even villages must have their 
mail on Sunday. To make the Sabbath a holiday, 
to strike a deadly blow, not only at Christianity, 
but also at the welfare of our country. 

5. Lawlessness as seen in mob rule and lynch 
law. The guilty ha iped and the innocent have 

ffered in many instances. The men who take the 
law into their own hands should be made in every 

We insist that no man, white 
or black, -hall be punished till by due process of law 

he F< l do other the 

wind and reap the whirlwind. 

President Roosevelt yesterday said: "No remark- 
able genius markable brilliancy is needed in 

the United What is needed in 

xactly the same qualities 
that make a man a decent neighbor, a decent hus- 
band, and a decent father. We can not afford to 

barter such qualities as honesty, as courage, as 00m- 

int of brilliancy or genius. 

We need in public life. We need in private life, to-day 
just the same qualities that have been needed since 

the world began/ 1 



W'ii \i M am .s \ \\ MON I iRJ i [5 

The ht>>ts that march under the banners of In- 
temperance, Political Corruption, Sabbath Des 
don, and Lawles re the foes not only of our 

Christ, but also of our loved land. Not to oppose 
them is to be guilty of treason to our country and 
UT God. They must be met and mask-red. As 
the servants o\ Him who died to make men holy, 
and some of von the sons of those who died to make 
men free, we can and must do it. 

Piety and Patriotism summon US to the task of 
making our country great and glorious by making 
it righteous. 

O America, America, hear thou the word of the 
Lord! 

"And what doth the Lord require of thee but to 
do justly, and love mercy, and walk humbly with 
thy God?" 



VII. 
UNCONSCK >US DETERIORATION, 

"And he wist not that the Lord was departed from 

him. 9 * — Judges xvi, 20. 

Th rds arc the explanation of the over- 

throw of the giant wit, warrior, and judge of Israel, 

His nan ma snimy or simlike. How 

well that describes his rollicking mirth, but from 
the time to which our text introduces us he dwelt 
in darkness — physical blindness, for the Philistines 
burned out I - with hot iron — and an irrepa- 

rable, Feat, caused bj his own sin and 

folly, filled him with shame and self-reproach. Two 

try, Milton ; and the other 

of music, Handel — ha\ inch of pathos 

and tragedy in the career of this strange man. that 

each have made him the Bubjecl of one of their 
loftiest prod' What contrasts he presents — 

thrilling exploits and contemptible weaknes 
Had not the pen of inspiration written the name of 

Samson in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews among 

116 



I rNCONSCK >US I >ET1 RIOF vi I I 17 

those who triumphed through faith, many Bible 
students would have been puzzled whether tin- -. ( <m1 
or the evil predominated in his character, and no! 
a few of them would have given him a place with 

such men as Balaam and King Saul, who wr< 

themselves for two worlds. 

If we except that of Joseph, probably no life 
recorded in the Old Testament has such a Strange 
fascination, especially for childhood, as that of Sam- 
son. His birth was predicted by an angel. His 
Strength and courage broke the forty years' sub- 
jection in which the Philistines had held Israel. 
By a scries of victories, unbroken, he became the 
hero and popular idol of the tribe of Dan, and the 
ever-present terror of his peoples' oppressors. The 
Philistines lost all hope of conquering him in open 
conllict. Till they could discover the secret of a 
Strength that made him more than the equal of an 
army of ordinary men, they would avoid him. A 
woman, Delilah by name, was chosen as the agent 
of his destruction. She was promised a great re- 
ward if she would find out and betray to them what 
made him so strong. She importuned him to tell 
her what was the secret of his great strength, lie 
deceived her. His enemies were concealed in the 
Very room where this harlot hypocrite put his story 



n8 Only a Profession. 

to the test. While he slept she bound him, as he 
had told her that if he were bound he would be as 
weak as other men. Then she stooped over him 
and cried, ' n. the Philistines be upon thee!" 

Ik- sprang to his feet, broke his bonds, and stood 
. lv to battle with the foes he supposed were about 
to attack him. Again and again the temptress and 
traitress plied him with her arts, each time diso 
ering that she had nut found out what she was so 
arn. 
At last wearied with her importunities and re- 
proach IIS hilled tO sleep by her tears, 
he told her that he was a Xa/arite; that he was a 
man e ted to I * d*S : that he was 
under a VOW, which tO that hour he had scrupu- 
lously kept, not to drink wine or any other strong 
drink; that his hair had never been cut. If he were 
tO cut his locks or suffer them to be shorn, it would 
be the sail I and man that he had 

repudiated his vow. He was betrayed by. Delilah; 
but he betrayed hi tal to himself and 

his country, to an enemy of bis faith and people. 
He was, fin If betrayed. There was some- 

thing in his manner that convinced Delilah that she 

had at las; ered the secret that was to bring 

her great riches, the Philistines their Ion-- SOUght 



and long delayed triumph, and Samson irreparable 

iter and ruin. Again the Philistine . c cealed 

in the room where Delilah is drawing the net around 

her stupid victim, wait to spring upon him. He 

falls asleep. J lis locks are >hnni, his hands hound. 

Delilah again bends over him with a cry that might 
well carry terror to his heart, that had never known 

a fear before, "Samson, the Philistines be upon 

thee." He springs to meet the enemies he had 
always triumphed over before, confident of victory, 
for he wist not, or knew not, that the Lord was de- 
parted from him ; but when the Philistines bound 
him, and burned out his eyes, and dragged him 
down to Gaza, the city that had witnessed his great- 
triumph, a poor, blind, shambling captive, the 
derision and sport of those who had once trembled 
at the mere mention of his name, he knew then that 
God was departed from him. Canon Liddon has 
wisely remarked: "The first thing that strikes us in 
this account of Samson's ruin, is the possible mi- 
nce of apparent trifles on the highest well- 
being of life and character. Samson's unshorn hair 
told other Israelites what to expect of him, and re- 
buked in his own conscience all in his life that was 
not in keeping with his Xazarite vow. The great 
gift of physical strength was attached to this one 



120 Only a Professi 

particular of Nazarite observation, which did duty 
for all the rest. Jn itself it was a trifle whether his 
hair was cut or allowed to grow; hut it was not a 
trifle in the light of these associations." 

We can net go far in reviewing this life, so dif- 
ferent from ordinary lives, and yet having so much 
in common with them, without leaving the ground 

of fact and entering the domain of conjecture and 
fancy. I hit one lesson lies on the very surface of 

this hi- 'tin that he who runs may read, 

that God's presence and favor insure- success and 
victory. His disfavor means sham< it, and 

ruin. As a 1 triumphs we read. 

"The Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him," 

and now t! it and shame is told in 

otir text, "The Lord was departed from him." "If 

- us, who can be against us?" And if 

ainsl US, it matters little who is for tis. 

This should he both a warning and an encourage- 
ment Men tell us that the liquor-traffic is too 
strong to be overthrown; that it is intrenched in 
politics, and numbers, and avarice, and appetite. 

Have these who so say forgotten that tin- Man of 
Galilee has a coir- with this evil? He who 

spake the doom of tin- barren fig-tree and who said, 
"Every plant that My Heavenly Father hath not 



1 fNCONSCK >US I >ETERIOB \ I I 21 

planted shall be rooted up," will some day wither 
with the breath of His wrath or cut down with the 

sharp ax of Mis judgments this tree of death. It 
omed already, for the mouth of the Lord hath 
spoken its destruction. The individual or organ- 
ization that begins an undertaking without the favor 
of God goes out to ultimate defeat, while those who 
have His favor, though the world is arrayed against 
them, are on the road to triumph. 

I heard Mr. Moody say that if St. Peter had 
preached the sermon he did on the Day of Pente- 
cost, and the Holy Ghost had not descended on the 
multitude, the murderers of the Son of God would 
have been so infuriated by it that they would have 
exterminated the Church. But the descent of the 
Spirit tamed and melted them. They felt to Oppose 
Peter and his fellow disciples would be to be found 
fighting against God. If ever there was a preacher 
who by his natural and acquired gifts did not need 
the aid of the Holy Ghost to make him useful and 
successful, it was Thomas Chalmers. Some of the 
greatest thinkers of that land of thinkers declared 
he was the greatest orator since the days of Demos- 
thenes and Cicero. IP- lived a life above reproach. 
lie pursued his work- with tireless industry; hut for 
seven years he wa^ content with the ardent admira- 



122 Only a Profession. 

tion and affection of a congregation that filled his 
historic church to the doors. He fell sick. Some 
one put Wilberforce's "Practical Christianity" into 
his hands. A season of heart-searching and dark- 
ness was followed by one of great peace He came 
from thai "in a changed man. The Bible that 

he resorted to only for text-, now became his con- 
stant companion and study. His ministry became 
uitful as it had hitherto been barren, A revival 
flame speedily was kindled in his pulpit, that leaped 
all over Scotland He felt all those who heard him 

knew tl. 3 with him. 

< pt the Lord build the house, 
they labor in vain that build it; except the Lord 

keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain." 

St. Paul test : "1 have planted, Apollos watered; 

but G e the inert . then neither is he 

that plantetl] anything, neither he that watereth; 
but God that giveth the inci 

Why docs God depart from men? Because they 

first depart from Him. [f we draw nigh to God, 
He will draw nigh to us. if we depart from Him, 
He will depart from us. Sin separates man from 
It may he doing those things that he ought 
not to do, or leaving undone the things he should do, 
that cam ike a man who has enjoyed 



UN* s 1 V 1'i.Ki. IRA1 I 123 

His presence and favor. What appears a trifle to 
others, may be the test whether we will obey God 
or not 1 have seen a three year-old boy, handsome 
as a cherub, when told by his mother to shut a door 
defiantly shake his little fist and shout, "I will not." 
Shutting the door was a trifle; but that mother 
knew the young rebel must be subdued and "made 
to mind." or her rule in the home was at an end. 
Things that you could do without any sense of con- 
demnation after you became a Christian, you can 
not do now. You have found that they harm you in 
life and influence. Young Christians are often 
charged unjustly with unfaithfulness, when they are 
living up to their light. Be patient with them. 
They will see these things differently some time. 
Yet it must be admitted that there is much trilling 
with light. A woman once came to me, she said, for 
advice ; but every suggestion I made she promptly 
parried. At last I said to her: "I may be in error 
in this matter, and giving you wrong advice. Will 
you when you get home take this matter to God, 
and ask His direction? Will you ask Him to make 
the path of duty plain, and promise Him that you 
will walk in it?" Sin promptly replied, "No, I will 
n<»t." She knew what her duty was. She wanted 
to get it changed. She had come, hoping that I 



124 Only a Profession. 

would make some admission or concession that 
would quiet an otherwise uneasy conscience] The 
sins that separate man from his God are many and 
varied. There is many a shorn Samson in pulpit 
and pew in our days. Here IS a preacher whom SUC- 
5S or popularity has made vain. lie boasts of the 
size or quality of his c Ltion. You can not be 

with him five minutes without his telling you that 
they had to bring in extra chairs to accommodate 

his congregation last Sunday night, or that the 
wealthi st prominent people in the community 

are communicants or pew-holders in his Church. 

He ha< long sino <n that a very important 

question IS, What is a church filled with or for? 

11 ■ another man who once was strong. 

ut the 1' strength, He may 

he Stating the truth when he declares that the 
Church has not recognized his gifts and rewarded 
his should he recognized and re- 

warded, lie has I I over his slights, real or 

fancied, till he finds it easier to rejoice over the 
failures than the - of his brethren. Here 

another preacher \\h<> once spoke with a proph< 
tnd spirit. lie impressed men, and compelled 

them to listen to him. By declaring unwelcome 
and Unpopular truth he lost the favor of those who 



Un( Dei briorai 

once applauded and praised him. He forgot God in 
his hour of trial and temptation. He resolved that 
he would be more discreet in the future. Hence- 
forth he would express no opinions or sentiments 
that could get him into trouble. When he so de- 
cided he lost power with both God and man. The 
good angels pity this preacher so (alien. Evil men, 

while they praise his good sen.se and liberality, in 

their hearts despise him. lie has evidently for- 
gotten part of Christ's warning, "Whosoever there- 
shall be ashamed of Me and My words, of 
him also shall the Son of man be ashamed when He 
cometh in the glory of His Father and the holy 
angels/' 

Churches as well as ministers need to be re- 
minded sometimes that the friendship of the world 
and worldlings can only be secured by unfaithful- 
ness to Christ and His message. The sermon that 
makes men who have not sorrowed for and forsaken 
their sins feel comfortable, may well be suspected. 
The Church that seeks to win adherents by making 
the requirements of admission s<> easy that any one 
who desires to be respectable has nothing to sur- 
render, will find it-elf forsaken of God, The Church 
that does not expose and oppose the sins of its time, 



126 Only a Profession. 

that consents, if not to a formal alliance, at least 
a truce, with the practices and amusements that have 
always separated and always will separate lovers of 
pleasure from lovers of God, will have Ichabod writ- 
ten upon its walls. What shall it profit a Church if 
it wins favor with the world, and thereby loses 
power with God? Political platforms have seme- 
times been framed so as to mean anything or noth- 
ing on living issues. Can the Church safely follow 
th"s L - who would have her imitate such a com 
lur utteranc 

It is easy to Bee how God can depart from a 

Church, and it he at that very time congratulating 
itself on speiity. There have been Churches 

since that of the I.a<»diceans to whom Christ has 
said: lien, becau-e thou art lukewarm, and 

neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of My 
mouth ; 1 I am rich, and inert 

with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowesl 

not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, 

and blind, and naked." 

But it would be incredible that God could de- 
part from a man and he be insensible of the ruin 
that must overtake him, if not averted by Speedy 

repentance, were it not for the following Facts: 

Xo man in his religious life goes from fervor to 



LINO INSCIOUS I >E1 BRIORA1 127 

indifference in a day or week. Spiritual deterio- 
ration is generally gradual. It we were to pass i 
midday to midnight in the twinkling of an eye, we 
would be startled by the suddenness of the change; 
but [, these spring days, have walked along country 
roads and did not notice when the day closed and 
the night began. A time came when I was aware 
that I was walking in darkness. Dr. William Tay- 
lor says: "If in a single day the constitution of a 
man were to give way, and he wdio left home in the 
morning 'rejoicing as a strong man to run a race' 
were to return in the evening hoary and toothless, 
leaning on a staff and bending under the infirm- 
ities of age, he could not fail to be aware of the 
change ; yet, because such a transition is made 
through the gradations of years, there is little con- 
sciousness of the process. Let any one take a scries 
of his own portraits in the different stages of his 
history — as a boy at school, as a youth at college, 
young man entering business, as a man in his 
prime, and as he now is on the eve of threescore 
and ten years — and he will be surprised at the dif- 
ference between each of these and all the rest. And 
yet the\' were all correct. They were all good at 
the time when they were taken, for he has pa* 
through all these stages, and it is only as he con- 



128 Only a Profession. 

trasts the last of them with the first that he dis- 
covers how great the transformation has been." 

I have ascended a lofty mountain over a road 
that the skill of the engineer had seemingly made 
near level all the way, that I could hardly believe 

the testimony of my eyes when I had reached the 

summit rhere in that journey of more than a 

I miles was there as steep a pitch as you will 

find in the road between here and the next villa. 

winding through a country that has no mountains 
or high hills. The engineer had learned how to 

make mountain-climbing easy, lie who seeks not 
to j us. has learned how to 

take Christians from an exalted plane of living to 
-. without once disturbing their false se- 
curity by an abrupt fall or even jar. 

Then Christiai • absorbed in 

tlie pui pleasure, Came, or riches, that they 

are insensible of the changes that are taking place 

in themseh I, interpreting the parable 

ribes n< a a few of our nun tin 

when 1 ' : "And these are the}- which are sown 

anion-- thorns; such as hear the word, and the caies 
thi> \\<»rld and the deceitfulness and lusts of 
other things entering in, choke the word and it be- 
Cometh unfruitful." 



Uno MORATION, 129 

unconscious that they are deteriorating 
spiritually, because they still adhere to certain things 
dated with a religious life or they fol- 
low a religion avocation. Samson, probably, ref 
to believe that he was departing from the Lord, 
because he still abstained from wine and was ready 
to fighl f< r Israel and hated the Philistines! What 
minister has not been tempted by the suggestion: 
"Surely it must be well with my soul. Do I not 
offer prayer and preach the word of God in the 
public congregation? Do not I administer the Holy 
Sacraments? A man who thinks about holy things 
and talks about holy things as much as I do, must 
be growing in grace!" A man may wear the livery 
of heaven and hold a foremost place and promi- 
nent office in the Church long after he has in heart 
departed from God. Office-bearing in the Church 
t a reliable certificate of soul health or a title 
to an inheritance in the skies, else our Savior had 
never said: "Many will say unto Me in that clay. 
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name, 
and in Thy name have cast out devils? and in Thy 
name done many wonderful works? and then will 
I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from 
Me ye that work iniquity ." 

The merchant who, suspecting that he is not 
9 



130 Only a PROFESSION. 

driving a successful business, neglects to take an 
inventory or strike a balance, is to blame for not 
knowing how he stands financially. The man who 
fears that some di is undermining his consti- 

tution, and yet will not consult a physician lest his 
fears should be confirmed, is no more foolish than 
the man w! xamine himself spirit- 

ual' deceived till the awful disclosures 

of the judgment-day undeceive him. The man who 
is blind to signs in himself that he is departing from 
Eten quick to interpret these same Symp- 
lon ctly when seen in another. He resents 
[ an unfriendly spirit all attempts to 

make him aware of his real condition spiritually. 

I v. i t li ful a i 4 Fashion 

knew. and charming 

Though a mei the Church, her 

Church w<»rk was limited to attending the Sunday 

morning service and paying her pew rent. One 

day on the car> a lady who - r to me 

introduced her V< >n are, I think, the 

1 rs, X. I ' nvey to her my love 

and gratitude. I have n< her in ten years. 

1 am more indebted to her than to all others that I 

am a Christian. When she was in our village she 

3 the life of our Sunday-school and prayer-meet- 



I " v rg 1 )i.i gRIORATION. [31 

She was never absent from any mean 
grace when she could possibly be present, Our 
ur great gain/ 1 I saw a chance to remind 
my parishioner of her former activity in Church 
work without giving her any excuse for takinj 
fense. I improved the first opportunity to deliver 
the message that had been confided to me, A 
pained, regretful expression passed over her coun- 
tenance; then she said, "My religious life in the 
old days was very fluctuating and uneven. It now 
flows on even and unruffled." She did not deceive 
me, and for the moment she did not deceive herself. 

"Life hath its changes, 'tis death that abideth the same." 

I have gone into a home of poverty and squalor. 
I was ignorant of the history of those who lived 
there. Suddenly I discovered some rare picture or 
ornament of exquisite beauty. It told of better 
da\s. These people had not always been poor. So 
I have heard men pray, whose prayers made no 
more impression on me than did the walking of the 
sparrows this morning on the roof under which I 
last night found rest and shelter, till some expres- 
sion dropped from their lips that told me that their 
ion in other days had been, not as now, one of 
form only, but of life and power. Samson's folly 



132 Only a Profession, 

and fall is recorded for our warning. "Take heed, 
brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart 
of unbelief, in departing- from the living God." 

What does an honest examination this day dis- 
close? Some one answers, "I am richer in faith 
and good works toward God than ever before." 

1 be praised! Another laments: "I have been 
departing from God. I have neglected the study of 
His Word I have forsaken the place of secret 

prayer. I have been utterly indifferent to and care- 
3 of the eternal welfare of even my friends and 
family. I fear having a name to live, I am spirit- 
ually dead." Make, I h you, David's prayer 

the cr\ - heart: "Cast me r. from Thy 

bj I I' 1} Spirit from me. 

Restore unto me the j i Thy salvation, and up- 
hold me with Thy free Spirit." If in earnotn 
and humility j that petition, you will soon 

able to testify, "He restoreth my soul, lie leadeth 

me in the paths of righteousness fur His name's 

sal,,. 



VIII. 
A WITHERED HAND. 

"And there was a man t lie re which had a withered 

hand." — Mark III, I. 

A max with a withered right hand had been 
healed by our Lord. But the rulers looked with evil 
eyes oil the miracle, for it had been wrought on the 
Sabbath day. It was nothing to them that the man, 
who had been powerless to help himself or others, 
was now well and happy. They would not have 
cared if he had remained a cripple all his days. 
They had no congratulations for the man who stood 
there before diem able and ready to do his share 
of the world's work, or thanks for the Master who 
had made such a change in his condition and pros- 

3. They went out to plot how they might de- 
stroy Him who came to seek and save the lost. 
Those who are always the last to feed the poor, in- 
struct the ignorant, and reform the vicious of their 
own communities are usually the first to condemn 
thobe who presume to contribute to foreign mis- 

*33 



134 Only a Profession. 

sions. They are not remotely connected in spirit 
with these critics and would-be murderers of our 
Lord. 

The man with the withered hand, in his help- 
ess and inefficiency, is the representative of 
the spiritual cripple who can not work for or de- 
fend himself or ethers. That withered hand dis- 
qualifies him for a place among the world's workers 

or warn the following ques- 

tion, in substance, as 1 remember it, was submitted 
to a hundred of the scientific leaders of the age: 
"Assuming that the doctrine of evolution is true, 

will there ever he an animal in our world superior 
to man?" It wa :itieant fact that these men, 

differing as they did in religious belief, declared 
with consentient voice that there will not he an ani- 
mal on our [ iperior t<> man — that in him the 
animal world finds its crown and culmination. In 

what '.is superiority con Not in Bize, 

strength. In such a contest he would 
he far outstripped by many competitors. In swift- 
nness of vision or hearing, even some in- 
a him. But give man hi> brain to rea- 
son and plan, and his good right hand t« I carry his 
plans into execution, and he lias dominion over the 
tenant and land. Wither his hand and 



\ Withered I [and. 

he starves or falls a prey to the beasts over which he 
now wields almost undisputed sway. A man with 
a withered handl What a pathetic figure of v. 

ness and helplessness I If you would know the 
strength ^\ an army you do not count the cripples 

or those laid up in the hospitals. You count the 
men who are ready to go on to the battle-field and 
give a good account of themselves. An army with- 
out discipline or devotion to the country under 
whose banner it marches, is not a defense, but a 
menace. If all in our Churches who are repre- 
sented by the man with the withered hand were 
dropped, what a shortening of Church rolls! What 
a shrinking of Church figures! Probably not as 
much as in Gideon's army. One-half or two-thirds 
would melt away and disappear under the operation 
of such a method in taking the census. One day I 
saw in a daily newspaper a picture at the head of 
the labor organizations of a city. It represented a 
stalwart hand grasping a hammer. A little below 
another stalwart hand grasping a sword. That 
was the sign at the head of the military organiza- 
tions. And below that were two clasped hands. 
The\' represented the fraternal bodies. I thought, 
for T had just been reading the story to which our 
text introduces US, "The^e are not withered hands." 



136 Only a Profession, 

I. In a world like ours, where there is SO much 
to be done and 50 few to do it, how many who have 
promised God and the Church to bear their own and 
the burdens of Others, as far as in them lies, are idle 
and help!* — ! Going to Church on Sunday — open- 
ing one's ears to hear {] 1 and one's purse to 

support tute a Christian worker. 

That is more than some professed followers oi Him 
"who went about d l M ever do. Compara- 

tively few people in every Church do the work done 
by the Church, and these have no more strength or 

time or mental ability than those who do little or 

nothing. In th< ge Church of five hundred 

men. 1 all the visiting and 

watching with the sick that i*> done. A score at 

the 1 : - the number that seek out and make 

Welo A hundred Support the praver- 

meeting. If all were to do as one-half or two-thirds 

that Church would speedily disappear. If all 

the five hundred members of the Church were to be 

brought up to the efficiency and usefulness of the 

first fifty, what mar >wth and expansion 

we would behold! To get these four hundred and 

fifty members to become like the first fifty is Ear 

important to that Church and the outside 

and organizations through which it is to do 



\ With bred 1 1 wn. [37 

its share i^v the world's betterment than the addi- 
tion of a thousand like the four hundred and fifty 
who arc afflicted in a greater or less degree with 
withered hands. There are two Churches that some 
of you have seen. The younger one has about a 
hundred members. The other one has about three 
hundred. The average financial ability of the mem- 
bers ^i the latter Church is equal to, if not greater 
than, that of the members of the former Church. 
Yet that Church is doing more, both at home and 
abroad, than its neighbor three times are large. That 
small Church is having a healthy growth. The 
other one, while it has its present standards and is 
satisfied with its present achievements, must de- 
cline. In one Church the man with the withered 
hand is in a small minority. In the other he is in 
an overwhelming majority. In the one Church he 
is looked upon with pity, he is an exception. In 
the other the cripple is so common that he is looked 
upon as the normal type of Christians. He resents 
any attempts to persuade him to do his duty. He 
insists that he is doing all that the Church has any 
right to expect or demand of him. The average 
man in one Church pays more than the man ten 
times as wealth}' does in the other. The one Church, 
by its teaching and example, is training its con- 



133 Only a Profession. 

verts to pray and give. In the other, the influence of 
all he sees and hears is to cripple the young con- 
vert in his attainments and achievements, till he 
finds "his own place" with those who have withered 
hands. This small Church pays its pastor as much 
and far more promptly than the one that has three 
times as many men "1 three times as much 

wealth. Through the labors of an evangelist a 
hundred well-to-do persons were added to the mem- 
bership of the large Church. It refused to fai- 
r's support It> leaders argued that 
there would he deaths and declensions by and by, 
and that some time they would he hack to the Con- 
dition they were in before the revival I They re- 

I to be moved by the heaven-sent encourage- 
• to plan for and do larger things for the king- 
dom of Cod. The shriveling, withering proce 

taking place there, [n one place a modern Caleb 
and Joshua are the leaders of th al board. In 

the other the descendants of the ten spies who 
brought had: the unfavorable report from the prom- 
ised land, are in a great majority. That small, young 
Church is moving rapidly toward the promised land, 
while the older, larger One is turned toward the 

rt ! Till its 1- changed, it is 

doomed to defeat and decline. The Church that 



\ Withered 1 1 uro. [39 

takes advantage of every opportunity it has to con 
tract in its doing an<l giving, and that God Himself 
can not encourage into expansion and enlargement, 
will wither. Sometimes a pastor is responsible for 

the selfi>hne>s of his Church. He forgets that he is, 
first of all. the servant of the Methodist Kpiscopal 
Church, and not of the local organization. He is 
preaching in a large and strong Church, because, 
perchance, Methodists outside of it saved it from 
ruin and extinction. Xow he encourages his people 
to refuse to help sister Methodist Churches in the 
same city, who are in dire need of help. Like rich, 
Stingy men. who keep in debt so that they will have 
an excuse for not giving, he always has something 
his own Church needs that prevents it giving aid 
to others! If Methodists in other days had done as 
he is doing, the Church he is preaching in would not 
have been. Verily, a Methodist Episcopal preacher 
who is devoid of a fraternal spirit, and causes his 
people to forget that we are a connectional Church, 
is a very expensive luxury to the denomination. 

Our district is not unlike hundreds of others in 
the Church. We have weak charges and strong 
charges, hut we have not a charge on the district 
that would not prosper if all who have named the 
name of fesus "had a mind to work" fur Him. The 



140 Only a Profession. 

hearty and general adoption of Bible methods and 
measures would bring an unparalleled 3. A 

critic of half a century ago said, "Methodism, more 
than any other body, succeeds in getting its adher- 
ents to work. It owes its marvelous growth to 
May not its slow increase at the present time 

the fact that so many of its adher- 
ents have withered hat: 

2. A man with a withered hand would do no 

more with a SWOrd On a battle-field where the red 

harv< reaped, than he could en a 

-field with i How many who give no 

evidence of withered hands in time of peace, when 

the battl( in array are helpless 1 The SWOrd 

from their hands as they move with great 

rapidity and promptness to tin places that chaplains 

are supposed t<> occupy in time of danger, far to 
the rear. TI<>\v many who desire the soldier's re- 
ward are unwilling to endure hard; 1 sol- 
diers of JestlS Christ! They shrink from the re- 
proach of t: They are afraid t<> be called 

or regarded "peculiar." The}- Indulge in practices 

that they know to be wrong and hurtful, because 

"every one Look at this picture. A 

Japai neral, during the siege of Port Arthur, 

division of the Japanese army. He 



\ Wmii bred Hand i i i 

says: "Soldiers of Japan, I desire volunteers t-> go 
on an especially hazardous expedition. Probably 
none who go will ever come back, I do not lil 

send men to certain death. As many of yon as are 

willi: l take a Step forward." As one man 

that division Stepped forward. An equal devotion 
to the cause of Jesus Christ on the part of all his 
followers would speedily take the banner of the 

>S to the ends of the earth. It is a pitiable sight 
to see the Church commissioned by her Lord to 
cast out devils, so fearful of them that she is ready 
to compromise and let them stay if they will only 
behave themselves and be a little more respectable. 
In the Bible we read of Eleazar, one of the three 
chief captains of King David. The Philistines 
made a sudden incursion to capture and carry off 
the barley harvest, then being gathered. The peo- 
ple lied before the invaders, but Eleazar, with his 
comrades, slew or beat off the Philistines. And 
when he had accomplished his great exploit, he 
tried to lay aside the sword he had wielded with 
snch effect on that day that gave him deathless 
fame, but he could not. Pie had taken snch a grasp 
on the good blade that his hand clave to it. Eleazar 
had no withered hand. Mr. Moody said in his char- 
acteristic way, "The Bible says that ( ne follower of 



142 Only a PROFESSION, 

our Lord shall chase a thousand sinners, and two 
shall put ten thousand to flight ; but in some com- 
munities it takes five hundred of our modern Chris- 
tians to chase one sinner." A witty Federal cap- 
tain was asked by a young woman if he was sure 
lie had slain any one of the enemy during the Civil 
War. lie replied in the affirmative, lie said he 

a rebel colonel, who had chased him ten 

miles at the battle of Bull Kim. had died of heart 

failure as the result. Seme professed Christians, 

I know, seem to have adopted the tactics of the cap- 
tain at Bull Kim for destroying the foes of Christ 

and His Church. They will exhaust any enemy that 

seeks to get near them, or even find out where they 

are. H(TO many of the professed followers of Him 

\\h<> said, "Fear not them which kill the body, but 
are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him 
which is able to destroy both .soul and body in 

hell," arc laughed out of their convictions I It is 

not to men of such a spirit that the world owes its 

progn 

In 1 <ongfell< >\v's "Michael Angelo," Valdesso, 
the priest, is represented as saying to Lady Julia: 

" Vt»u would be free 
that come and go 
Through your imagination, and would have me 
point out and lady-like 

Which you may walk in, and not wound your feet : 



\ With BRED HAND, [43 

Von would attain to the Divine perfection, 

I turn your kick upon the world J 

Von would possess humility within, 

Hut not reveal it in your outward actions; 

You would have patience, but without the rude 

isions that require its exercise; 
You would despise the world, but in such fashion 

The world would not despise you in return ; 

Would clothe the soul with all the Christian graces, 

Yet not despoil the body of its gauds ; 
Would feed the soul with spiritual food, 

Yet not deprive the body of its feasts; 
Would seem angelic in the sight of (rod, 
Yet not too saintlike in the eyes of men ; 
In short, would lead a holy Christian life 
In such a way that even your nearest friend 
Would not detect therein one circumstance 
To show a change from what it was before. 
Have I divined your secret?" 

Lady Julia replies, 

M You have drawn 
The portrait of my inner self as truly 
As the most skillful painter ever painted 
A human face." 

Lady Julia's question how at the same time to 
be a true disciple of Jesus Christ and not incur the 
ridicule and hatred of the world, is the perplexing- 
one for many who live in our day. 

3. The open hand is the emblem of benevolence. 

There was never a time before when man's obli- 

as a steward was more emphasized than at 

nt. And there was never a time before when 



144 Only A PROFESSION, 

the rich were bringing such large gifts to the cause 
of education and philanthropy. The aggregate of- 
ferings of our Church are increasing rapidly, but it 
is very doubtful whether our increase in giving is 
keeping pace with OUT increase in wealth. Rela- 
tively, we are not giving as much as our fathers 
did. John Mott calls "Christian colleges the Strate- 
gic point in the world's conversion/ 1 He has not 

Lted their importance. The men they have 

trained for Christ and the men they have woo to 

Christ vindicates their right to the gratitude and 

rl of the Church, These Christian 

institutions ,,f learning have compelled the secular 

institution- to maintain, at least, a respectful atti- 
tude toward Christianity. I can name several Meth- 
odists, :ie of whom ha< more money than the 
than a quarter of a million Methodists of the 
Empire State have invested in Christian education. 
I might name a Methodist who could give as much 
for Christian education as the nine hundred thou- 
sand Method New England and the Middle 
States have put in their academies and colleges, and 
then have as much left as he has given. Let the 
Church open her hand to her schools, hospitals, and 

orphanageSj and she will find the windows of heaven 

opened to pour out on her a great and lasting bless- 



\ Withered I ; 

ing, It' she shuts up her hand to them she will 
find herself weak and impoverished. 

Clasped, uplifted hands have ever been the 
emblem of earnest, importunate prayer. McNeil, 
commenting on the passage, "Elias was a man sub- 
like passions as we arc, and he prayed ear- 
nestly that it might not rain, and it rained not on 
the earth by the space of three years and six months. 
And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, 
and the earth brought forth her fruit;" says, "EHas 
was a mail subject to like passions as we are, and by 
prayer he readied up and shut the windows of 
heaven and bolted them, and three years and a half 
later, when the bolts had rusted, by prayer he 
reached up and shot back the bolts, and the heaven 
gave rain." Is it not. true that our fathers were 
mighty in prayer to a far greater degree than their 
children? If they came to difficulties the}' "prayed 
through." Do you know what it is to pray till you 
can say with David, "This poor man cried, and the 
Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his 
troubles, "or "I love the Lord because He hath heard 
my voice and my supplications?" Xo Church or 
individual whose hands of prayer are withered will 
be strong or successful in the work of the Lord. 

5. Clasped hands not uplifted, or belonging to 

10 



146 Oxi.v a Profess* 

one but to two persons, are the emblem of fra- 
ternity. I have no attack to make on many fra- 
ternal bodies outside the Church. I have no objec- 
tions to improved orders of red or white men. I 
know some white men who stand in great need of 
being improved. I may, however, venture the sug- 
•n that the Christian who makes more of his 
than of his Church, or who finds time t<^ at- 
tend the meeting of his lodge, hut none to attend 
the prayer-meeting ^i his Church, has put thing 

the v rder. The Church of our Lord Jesus 

Christ should he the truest, most prized brother- 
hood in the world. The undue multiplication of 

these fraternal 1" -' < - I a metimes think is in a meas- 

l the Church to do its whole 

duty in this matter. Many of the charges made 

nst the Church are doubtless groundless and 

unreasonable. Some of these complaints, however, 

can not he dismi indation. Where 

the hand of brotherly 1< >ve is withered, there the 
poor and people in moderate circumstances will 
feel that they are not welcome. A Church dev<>i<l 
of brotherly love will have little attraction for the 
When the lodge IS more fraternal than 
the Church, it will have more drawing power. It 
■; the members of a dying Church that men 



A \\ 11 11 i:ki.i> 1 1 \m>. 1. 17 

"Behold how these Christians love one an- 
other/ 1 The late Dr. John M. Reid said that when 
his grandfather landed in America he had never 
been in a Methodist church. He went into old 
John Street Church, in New York City. A class- 
leader grasped his hand and gave him a warm wel- 
come. When he left another one took him by the 
hand and gave him a cordial invitation to come 
again. Dr. Reid said when that class-leader shook 
his grandfather's hand so cordially on the steps of 
the John Street Church, 'Tie shook whole genera- 

3 of Reids into the Methodist Church." After 
making all allowance for the oversensitiveness of 
some people, it must be admitted that there are 
Churches that exhibit a spirit of caste not less to be 
condemned and shunned because found in America 
and not in India. May it not be that while the ob- 
servance of class distinctions is disappearing from 
India, it is waxing stronger and stronger in Amer- 
ica? To the Church that has a welcome only for the 
man "with a gold ring in goodly apparel," the Car- 
penter of Xazareth, "who had not where to lay his 
head ing, "I know you not." 

6. The guiding, directing hand represents Chris- 
tian consistency. When that hand is pointed to the 



148 Only a Profession. 

skies seven days of the week, then there will daily 
be added to the Church such as are being saved. 

7. The uplifted hand may stand for the oath of 
fidelity or the faithful witnt 

A hundred m< I in a line in the sixties in 

California. A man read a few words out of a little 

. while each of the hundred held up his right 

hand. That oath caused most of them to die on 

the battle-fields of the Civil War. A score of years 

On a June day. T was in the Coliseum at Rome. 

There were the arches of the dens from which lions, 

:id other h l< h >ked < >ut with 

hungry eyes on the groups of Christian martyrs who 

stood where I was standing. Before I knew it, I 

had peopled those crumbling stow with the 

eighty thousand Romans who looked with pitiless 

on saints suffering and dying for their faith. 

I pul and his court where they Used t 

so |< Then in imagination, T put m; 

with the many men. women, and even children, who 

crimsoned these sands with their life 1)1 1 for 

ake, and wondered if T would have been 

faithful unto death. T was fearful that I would 
have failed, hut that hour did one thing for me. It 

made m< - that no one would ever hear me 

again describe witnessing for Christ in a company 



\ With i.ki.i. 11. I \Q 

hristians, as "taking up the cross/ 1 W li.it did 
I cost to witness for Jesus in those days? You 
ask me to tell what is the cause of these withered 
hands? When a doctor does nol know the can 
.some patient's death he frequently ascribes it to 
"heart failure." 1 will be perfectly safe in so diag- 
nosing these ea^es. These withered hands may be 
traced in every case to "heart failure." It is not 
our Lord's will that His people should be cripples. 
Hear Him say to each weak, inefficient disciple, 
'"Stretch forth thy hand!" An earnest, continuous, 
believing effort to obey is always followed by the 
restoration of the withered hand. When He was 
dying to save us, His enemies taunted Him, "He 
saved others, Himself He can not save." The hands 
that were nailed to the cross in that hour of the 
world's need are not withered, but are mighty to 
save all who come to God by Him. Remember, the 
hand that is extended to receive our gifts, or points 
to the world's ripe harvest fields, is the pierced hand 
of Him who loves us, and gave Himself for us. 



JUN 2 19C5 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date May 2006 

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